Pictures courtesy of Amarin.

 

Three schoolboys, all aged 13, drowned while fishing near a watergate in the Krathum Baen district of Samut Sakhon province. Their lifeless bodies were discovered beneath the surface, in an incident that has left the local community in shock and mourning.

 

The incident occurred near the Ang Thong floodgate at the Pasicharoen Water Delivery and Maintenance Project in Talad Krathum Baen subdistrict. Authorities were alerted at around 16:30 on 21 June and rescue divers from the Ruamkatanyu Foundation were dispatched to the scene, accompanied by police and medical personnel from Krathum Baen Hospital.

 

Onlookers gathered along the concrete embankment as divers recovered the body of the first victim, identified as Krit, a Matthayom 1 student at Krathum Baen Wisetsamutkhun School and a member of the school’s football team. A fishing hook was still attached to the waistband of his shorts when his body was found.

 

Rescuers continued to search the murky waters and, just ten minutes later, recovered the remaining two victims, identified as Phong and Phat, also 13-year-old students from Thetsaban Wat Don Kaidee School. The boys were discovered underwater, clinging to one another in a final embrace.

Fishing rods and a speargun were found near the embankment. Police collected these items as evidence, though it remains unclear whether they belonged to the victims or had been left by someone else.

 

A local security guard stationed at the floodgate told investigators that he had not seen the boys enter the area. He conducted a routine patrol around 13:00 and found no one present, before leaving for a meal. Later in the afternoon, he returned and noticed fishing gear left unattended. Suspecting something was wrong, he asked his nephew to check if the equipment belonged to a local child. When the boy tried to reel in one of the lines on a rod, a body tangled in the line unexpectedly floated to the surface. He immediately drop the equipment and the security guard contacted the police.

 

The cause of the incident is still unclear. Authorities are awaiting full post-mortem reports from Siriraj Hospital’s forensic institute and plan to interview the victims’ families, who were too grief-stricken to provide statements at the scene.

 

Police believe the incident to be accidental, but are continuing to investigate all possibilities.

 

 

  Adapted by Asean Now from Amarin 2025-06-23

 

 

 

Tragic but difficult to understand.