Rachen Phuntarakit, the Chief Administrative Officer (Palad) at Karon Municipality gave the tourist’s name as “Sa Gnan”, who was reportedly staying at a resort in Patong.
Karon Municipality Civil Defense Volunteers patrolling the beach found Mr Sa floating in the water at 4:45pm yesterday (Oct 5), Supachai Chanphet, head of the Department of Disaster Prevention & Mitigation division at Karon Municipality told The Phuket News today.
“It is very sad. They rushed to bring him onto the sand and tried to revive him, but their efforts failed,” the official said.
“We have no idea how he died, even though our officers were there. There water was not too deep water and there were no red flags posted in the area.
“A team of local rescue workers rushed him as quickly as they could to Chalong Hospital*, but he did not survive,” the official added.
“Police have been notified of the death, and Chinese consular officials have also been informed already,” he said.
Wanchai Saetan, Public Works Chief at Karon Municipality, explained on Wednesday this week (Oct 4) that currently a mix of trained lifeguards, Civil Defense Volunteers and Navy personnel a providing “beach safety” at Kata and Karon, on Phuket’s southwest coast.
“We cannot hire lifeguards [to replace all the trained lifeguards who used to patrol the area] for the time being, but some of those who previously worked as lifeguards at our beaches have stayed to patrol and carry out rescues for free, for the time being,” he said.
“At this stage I cannot confirm exactly how many lifeguards we have, but we do also have local DDPM and Civil Defense Volunteers as well as some Navy personnel providing assistance,” he added. (See story here.)
* The “Accident & Emergency Centre” at the site where the Chalong Hospital is still under construction.