With no Phuket lifeguards on patrol, Chinese tourist drowns at Patong

The tourist, Teng Yiding, 64, from the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning, which borders North Korea, was pulled from the water just after 11am.

A Patong Municipality Fire & Rescue Department officer at the scene, who asked not to be named, told The Phuket News that he was notified of the incident by Patong Police at 11:15am.

Patong Municipality Fire & Rescue Department staff and Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers were soon at the scene.

“When we arrived a lifeguard (sic) was trying to revive the man. They were administering CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), but his condition was still very worrying and his pulse was very weak,” the municipality rescue official said.

“We carried him off the beach as quickly as we could and rushed him to Patong Hospital,” he added.

“His family is at Patong Hospital now. Patong Police are now investigating what caused the incident,” the municipality rescue official said.

The municipality rescue official later confirmed to The Phuket News that the “lifeguard” on duty was actually a qualified former Phuket lifeguard who was still patrolling Patong Beach free as a volunteer.

The death of tourist Mr Teng, in front of his wife, Wang Enmei, 62, while on holiday in Phuket, comes amid a now deadly embarrassing fiasco of Phuket being unable to organise having qualified lifeguards patrolling the beaches.

At last report, the company that now has a B13 million contract to provide Phuket lifeguards – Bangkok-based consultancy LP Laikhum Co Ltd – has yet to publicly confirm that any of its lifeguards are actually on patrol at Phuket beaches.

According to the contract, quietly offered and award in February, LP Laikhum was obligated to provide lifeguards at Phuket beaches on Mar 1. (See story here.)

Meanwhile, Phuket Vice Governor Thawornwat Khongkaew told The Phuket News late on Monday (April 2), “Their first showing will be on April 5 when LP Laikhum lifeguards will line up on Surin Beach to show the Governor they are ready to start work.” (See story here.)