Prachuap Khiri Khan—
At 6:00 PM, on March 18th, 2024, Thai national media reported a male gold miner was stuck under a gold excavation site as the soil had collapsed in Bang Saphan, Prachuap Khiri Khan.
Upon police investigation, the victim group included Mr. Uthai Rungsawang, Mr. Somporn Rodthet, and Mr. Dueanthong Sribunruang who did gold panning at the gold excavation site. Uthai volunteered to go inside the pit to dig the soil and the two others remained above to carry the soil up.
Suddenly, the soil collapsed, and both Somporn and Dueanthong used hoes in an attempt to dig Uthai out. However, the soil kept sinking and caused Somporn and Dueanthong to be sucked in as well, locals who witnessed the incident came to aid the victims, according to Thai national media. Somporn and Dueanthong were able to be pulled out successfully, but Uthai remained trapped.
Professional rescue teams were called to rescue Uthai deploying two backhoes to swiftly dig the victim out. The relevant officers secured the area as the soil might collapse further causing another tragic incident, according to Thai national media.
According to Thai national media, Uthai and the others were gold panners using traditional mining to extract gold. The gold excavation site was five to ten metres deep. The victims had been gold panning as normal and suddenly the soil collapsed causing Uthai to become stuck in the pit.
At 10:30 PM, the rescue teams were able to find the body of Uthai after a four-hour rescue operation. The body was found 10 meters underneath the ground where he was tragically believed to have suffocated to death.
The rescue teams transferred the body to Bang Saphan Hospital for an autopsy before sending the body to his relatives for religious rites.
