British Honorary Consul Martin Carpenter confirmed that a 20-year-old British tourist was electrocuted in Patong at about 6am this morning after live power lines came in contact with water.
When contacted by The Phuket News this morning, Mr Carpenter was on his way to interview the friend of the victim’s who he was with, while his next of kin will be notified in the coming hours.
Officials said water was nearly one metre high in some parts of Rath-U-Thit 200 Pi and Phangmuang Sai kor Rd, two of the lowest-lying areas in Patong.
Power cuts were reported in Kamala, Kathu, Chalong, and in other parts of Phuket’s west coast. Power has now been out in Kamala for six hours.
About five power poles were knocked down along Patong Hill, causing some of the power outages.
Phuket Provincial Electric Authority staff are now working to fix the problem, with Manager Somchai Kruepat saying: “We are doing it as quickly as possible and hope to restore power by this afternoon.”
Traffic was crawling along Chao Fa West Rd this morning as knee-deep flooding caused havoc for motorists.
Patong Municipality and Disaster Prevention and Mitigation office staff were working hard to clear drainage systems and working to prevent a possible landslide on Ha Sip Pi Rd in Patong.
A Phuket International Airport spokesman said one Bangkok Airways flight PG 251 from Koh Samui to Phuket was turned back earlier this morning because of bad weather.
Around 10 domestic and international flights were also forced to circle while they waited for clearance to land.
All flights were expected to continue as scheduled for the rest of the day, the spokesperson said.
A Rawai resident told The Phuket News the area was flooded with about 30cm of water. It was the worst rain she had experienced in the last few years living in Phuket.
She lived on a slope and said water was building up behind houses and against shop fronts in lower parts of Rawai.
“We are so lucky our house is raised about three quarters of a metre off the ground, otherwise water would be banked up against our house and seeping in.”