Chief Administration Officer (Palad) of the Kamala Tambon Administration Office (OrBorTor), Mr Kitikraisri Khaewwan, told The Phuket News today (Dec 1) that all the steel rods discovered at the beach were removed last week and that beachgoers should now be safe on the beach.
However, he did advise beachgoers to still be vigilant because he is not sure if more undetected rusty steel rods are still buried in the sand.
Mr Kitikraisri explained, “The steel bars were left from a former shrimp farm. These were buried very deep in the sand and were hard to pull out by hand because some were attached to cement blocks.
“On Nov 21, officials managed to cut two bars and pull them out using a truck, but due to the high tide they had to stop and marked the rest with sticks.
“We wanted to use machinery to pull the remainder of the rods out but nothing was available. In the end we jet-sprayed water onto one steel bar and the cement broke off making it easy to pull out the rod. We were then able to remove the remainder of the rods.
“We have checked the area and do not believe there are anymore rods in the sand,” he said.
“We are not sure where the owner of this old shrimp farm is now so we are unsure if this is all the rods. We have not received any report of more rods being found, but lifeguards have been advised to report to us if they find anything during low tide,” he added.