The parents of two young children died in a drowning tragedy yesterday afternoon while trying to save their kids from a similar fate in southern Thailand.
Witnesses revealed the family of five, 38 year old father Teerawut Phaosen, his 38 year old wife Piyanut, her 10 year daughter Kewarin, 8 year old son Phumpat, and Piyanut’s 40 year old sister Supaporn Makkawan, arrived at a dyke in Khao Chai Son district of this southern province.
Supaporn and the two children were playing in a stream near Moo 3 village in tambon Khuan Khanun but slipped and plunged into deeper waters.
Teerawut, Piyanut, and several other observers dived into the stream to rescue them. The children and Supaporn were safely rescued but the parents of the children disappeared.
Pol Lt Col Klao Polnui, a Khao Chai Son police chief investigator, said the police and a rescue unit scoured the stream in a search for the pair soon after they went into the water at about 5pm. He added they were found drowned three hours later quite a distance from the dyke.
The tragedy comes only days after Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers retrieved the body of an unnamed Burmese man who fell into a canal and drowned in Chalong.
The 47 year old man from Myanmar fell into the canal while watching the flooding, Phuket Info Center reported. The body was found near the floodgate, far from where he fell.
Unlike yesterday’s accident, local media reported several people saw the Burmese man in the water waving his hands to attract attention. Nobody was prepared to help the victim, as the canal was too wide and the current too strong.
Flooding has caused chaos in several provinces in Thailand over the past month. Phuket in particular has been hit bad when a road over Patong Hill partially collapsed.
The route was closed to traffic after last Wednesday’s landslide.