UPDATE: A fishing boat located Ms Porawasa’s body four kilometres offshore and a search team recovered her body this morning (Mar 22).
Police from Tha Chatchai Police Station were first alerted to the incident at 12:50am on Tuesday (Mar 17).
Officers arrived to find a white Honda PCX motorcycle parked on the bridge, while witnesses told police they saw the woman leap into the water before vanishing. She was later identified as 25-year-old Porawasa Onika, known as ‘Teacher Pro’, a teacher at Satree Phuket School.
A multi-agency search has been underway ever since, involving local rescue teams and volunteers. For the first four days, efforts focused on surface searches across the surrounding waters, but no trace of Ms Porawasa has been found.
A planning meeting was held yesterday (Mar 21) to reassess the operation and escalate the search. Attendees included rescue teams from the Mai Khao branch of the Kusoldharm Phuket Foundation, Sarasin volunteers, representatives from the Royal Thai Navy Region 3, local administrative officials and the missing woman’s mother.
Following the meeting, authorities revised their approach to include underwater searches in targeted areas beneath the bridge, with divers tasked to reach depths of approximately 16 metres.
At about 1pm, two divers entered the water to begin the operation. However, within minutes, the strong current in the channel forced the team to abandon the dive. Within minutes, the divers had returned to base, with conditions deemed too dangerous to continue.
Despite five days of continuous efforts, the search has yet to yield any results.
Officials said they will now reassess conditions and determine the next steps in the operation, as the search for Ms Porawasa continues.
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