Lt Thanakan Uchanaratsamee, an inspector at the nearby Sakoo Police Station, was notified at 4:09pm that a woman, later identified as French national Anne Sophie Faisant Torrijos, 23, had drowned at the beach.
“She was swimming with friends when the surf dragged her away about 30 metres away from the beach,” Lt Thanakan said.
“She was caught in the strong waves for about 20 minutes,” he said.
Kusoldharm rescue workers later recovered Ms Torrijos, unconscious and unresponsive, from the water near rocks beside the beach.
Attempts to revive Ms Torrijos were unsuccessful, Lt Thanakan said.
“They tried to revive her, but she did not respond and remained unconscious. She was rushed to Thalang Hospital, but doctors there pronounced her dead on arrival,” he added.
The small beach where Ms Torrijos drowned is within Sirinath National Park (see map) and the next beach south of Nai Thon Beach, which was one of five beaches declared closed to swimmers due to dangerous surf last week. (See story here.)
All five of those beaches have been re-opened, Vitanya Chuayuan, Deputy Chief of the Phuket Lifeguard Service, told The Phuket News this morning.
“But we urge all swimmers to swim only in the areas marked with red-and-yellow flags where there are lifeguards on duty,” she said.
Last Sunday (Aug 14), a Russian man, now identified as Sergey Nederlin, drowned at Naiharn beach at the southern end of Phuket. (See story here.)
Additional reporting Tanyaluk Sakoot