web DeskA landslide buried houses in Tambon Karon, Amphoe Mueang, Phuket Province, killing 10 people and leaving 1 person missing. Officials are searching for the missing person, believed to be trapped under a rock in Khao Lae Mountain after relatives reported that he was a Burmese national.
At Soi Patak in Tambon Karon, Mueang District, Phuket, where the landslide from the Naga Mountain fell on houses, causing many people to be injured and die. The latest death toll is 10, all foreigners, including 8 Myanmar nationals and 2 Russians.
Officials are still searching for the missing person, believed to be trapped under a rock in Phu Lae Mountain, after relatives reported that he was a Burmese national. The search for the missing person has been ongoing since 7 a.m. and has now been going on for about 11 hours.
Let’s look back at the events from before the incident and continuing throughout the day. The incident occurred around 5 am, when the sky was still light. Before this, Phuket Province, especially Kata, Karon
and Rawai, had continuous heavy rain. You can see that the water flowing down from the mountain is a muddy red.
One of the survivors told Thai News Agency that at around 5:00 a.m., he heard a sound like something falling on his house. When he came to, he saw the house wall collapse, so he ran to save himself. Water, mud, and rocks fell down from the Naga mountain range together and slid down a long path.
The scene of the incident is divided into two types. The first is a single-storey rental house built on a hillside near a waterway. The residents are Burmese.
This point resulted in a total of 8 deaths, all of whom were Burmese. The other point was a 2-storey house, which was a pool villa, and the tenants were Russians. It was built about 300 meters away from the first point, higher up than the first point.
These two points resulted in a total of 10 deaths, 6 women and 4 men. Part of the reason why the 12 people who died could not escape in time may have been because it was still early in the day and they
were sleeping.
The news team had the opportunity to talk to a local who has lived in that area since birth, Mr. Chalong, aged 56, who gave interesting information that the area where the landslide fell and buried houses, causing many deaths and injuries, was the most severe event ever, but it was not the first time. If we go back 10 years ago, in 2014, Mr. Chalong stated that he had taken pictures of a landslide that had occurred hundreds of meters from Khao Nak once before, and had been watching the changes all along because he was worried that one day an event like this would happen. He had collected images and information to give to the Phuket Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office to come and investigate, but at that time he said that the officials had informed him that he would have to notify the local government to take action. Ten years later, the incident happened again.
Mr Chalong believes that the cause of the severe landslide was the destruction of forest areas on Khao Nak Kerd to b
uild temples and large buildings, which led to this tragic incident. –
Source: Thai News Agency
