Search Launched For 17-Year-Old Feared Drowned In Phuket

[webfact]

Search launched for 17-year-old feared drowned in Phuket

Phuket Gazette

Rescue workers were forced to call off their search for missing 17-year-old student Nithipol Lorlaem after midnight last night. The search resumed at 8am today. Photo: Thawit Bilabdullar

Villagers gathered on Nai Yang Beach last night to keep a watchful eye on the dangerous surf for any sign of Mr Nithipol, now feared drowned. Photo: Thawit Bilabdullar

PHUKET: -- The search continues for a 17-year-old student who disappeared in strong waves at Nai Yang Beach late yesterday afternoon.

Royal Thai Navy officers from the Third Naval Area command in Phuket and Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers resumed their search for Nithipol Lorlaem at 8am today, after it was deemed unsafe to continue the search around midnight last night.

Mr Nithipol’s parents, Thanti and Nittaya Lorlaem, told rescue workers that their son arrived back home in Phuket from Chiang Mai, where he is a student at Attaqwa School, at 4am yesterday.

He went to the beach with two friends later that afternoon.

One of the friends, Saimarn Manabutr, also 17 years old, raised the alarm after Mr Nithipol disappeared in strong waves in front of the police box near the beach.

Mr Nithipol’s parents received a call from their son’s friends at about 5:45pm, informing them that Nithipol had disappeared.

Rescue workers in the area immediately launched a searchl, but have yet to find him.

Police, Navy officers and rescue workers are continuing their search today in the hope that Mr Nithipol is still alive, but they now fear that the search mission has become a body-recovery mission.

Source: http://www.phuketgaz...uket-18011.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2012-09-26

[asiawatcher]

Many Thai's are not good swimmers - but if his home was near the beach chances are he could swim. I guess we can only hope they recover him one way or the other. Sad.

[webfact]

Missing Phuket student, 17, found drowned

Phuket Gazette

BEAUTIFUL BUT DANGEROUS: Phuket's Nai Yang Beach, where 17-year-old Nithipol Lorlaem drowned, is popular with visitors, but the waters can be lethal. Photo: Kiranee Narabal

Phuket rescue workers continued their search late again last night, before Mr Nithipol's body was found this morning. Photo: Thawit Bilabdullar

PHUKET: -- Rescue workers have recovered the body of the missing 17-year-old student who was swept away by strong waves when he entered the surf while with friends at Nai Yang Beach on Tuesday.

Nithipol Lorlaem’s body was found this morning, about 500 meters from the police box near the beach, where he was last seen in the strong surf.

“Six lifeguards, Mr Nithipol’s family and local villagers resumed the search at 5:30am today,” Jit Chairap, head lifeguard of the Nai Yang-Nai Thon patrol unit, told the Phuket Gazette.

“A villager reported the discovery at about 6:30am,” he added.

Mr Nithipol’s friends told lifeguards that on Tuesday afternoon they went to the beach and sat near the police box to eat meatballs.

“They told us that Mr Nithipol accidentally dripped some meatball sauce on his shirt and he wanted to wash it off before going home, so he went into the water,” explained Mr Jit.

“The area in front of the police box is a ‘no swimming’ area. We marked the area with red flags to indicate this,” he added.

Mr Jit explained that lifeguards were on patrol at the time of Mr Nithipol disappearance, but not in the police box area.

“There are two lifeguard stations on the beach. One is near the Crown Nai Yang Suite Hotel and the other one is near the boyscout camp area. We used to have one more near the police box, but not since July, when Sirinath National Park officers told us we were no longer allowed to have a lifeguard station in that area.

“They told us that it was within the national park area [beyond the entrance fee collection booth]. However, from time to time we still send lifeguards to patrol that end of the beach in case anything happens,” said Mr Jit.

“Our lifeguards patrol the beach from 9am to 7pm every day. On that day, we received a report from beach vendors that a boy had disappeared in the surf in front of the police box at about 6:30pm, so we came running from our station near the boyscout camp to help search for him,” he said.

Sirinath National Park chief Cheewapap Cheewatham, however, today denied that his park rangers told the lifeguards they were not allowed to patrol the beach within the park boundaries.

“It might be a misunderstanding. We never told the lifeguards not to work in the area in front of the police box. That area is a red-flag zone, which indicates it is a ‘no swimming area’, so we need lifeguards on duty there,” Mr Cheewapap told the Gazette.

“I have to issue a letter to the lifeguard service company to clarify any misunderstandings and ask for their cooperation in having their lifeguards to patrol that area,” he said.

Source: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2012/Missing-Phuket-student-17-found-drowned-18019.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2012-09-27

[sportsman69]

R.I.P. Nithipol Lorlaem.

" Sirinath National Park officers told us we were no longer allowed to have a lifeguard station in that area. They told us that it was within the national park area [beyond the entrance fee collection booth]." To me It appears to have a monetary tone about it.

Another life that could have been possibly been saved but for the bureaucratic bullshit and greed that passes for the rules here.