Man talked out of jumping from Patong hotel balcony

Police were called to the scene, the Red Planet Patong Hotel on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd, opposite Patong Post Office, at 11:30am.

Lt Col Wuttiwat Liangboonjinda and fellow police officers, along with Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers, arrived to see the man dangerously perched on the balcony railing of his room on the sixth floor, with his legs dangling over the side.

The officers attempted to talk the man into moving to a safer position, but to no avail.

Patong disaster officials also soon arrived and set up a large inflatable mattress in the hope that if the man jumped, he would land on it.

The man, Kanaphot Saiphet, 30, from Bangkok, said he was intent on jumping. He was unable to contact his girlfriend, who had left him for another man.

After an hour of talking with his friend Thanawat Kongchum, 29, Mr Kanaphot agreed to talk with his girlfriend on the phone ‒ and to do so, to move from the dangerous position he had taken up on the balcony.

Mr Thanawat said Mr Kanaphot and his girlfriend had an argument in Surat Thani, but continued their trip together to Phuket.

However, the girlfriend later without notice boarded a flight back to Bangkok, leaving Mr Kanaphot searching the island for her.