Facebook user Thanawat Vinitpairoj, who is a freelance photographer, yesterday (June 26) posted three photos on his Facebook page along with a message which read, “Late in the afternoon while I was taking photos of two Australian women and a kid on Karon Beach, one of the women ran down to the sea, took off her trousers then jumped into the water and swam out towards a woman who was close to drowning.
“I tried to look for a lifeguard but could not see one, but this woman saved a Thai lady from drowning. “The Australian woman changed her clothes and then walked back down towards the water where she was hugged by the other foreign woman. She is a hero. Sometimes heroes don’t have to be men.”
The Phuket News later contacted Mr Thanawat regarding the incident and he told a reporter, “The incident happened at 5:30pm yesterday. I was taking photo of my customers. They are a family of two women and one kid.
“My customer saw two people, who I later found were a Thai woman and a Thai man, who were playing in the surf, but suddenly they got hit by a large wave. The man managed to get back to shore using a surfboard but the woman was stranded out at sea.
“One of the Australian women swam out to help her without any hesitation,” he said.
“They were both safe. The Australian woman was very brave, I admire her,” Mr Thanawat added.