BANGKOK, Thailand – A 32-year-old contract worker was found dead inside a drainage pipe beneath BTS Punnawithi station on Sukhumvit Road on September 18 after reportedly falling about 2–3 metres into the underground structure. Bangkok’s Phra Khanong District Office received a report through the 199 emergency hotline at 7:04 a.m. that a male worker involved in an underground power-cable project had fallen into a drainage pipe beneath the station in Bang Chak, Phra Khanong district. Firefighters and rescuers from Phra Khanong Fire and Rescue Station rushed to the scene to search for the worker.
Initial information indicated that the man may have entered the pipe to wash himself before apparently slipping and falling inside. The pipe was estimated to be 2–3 metres deep. At 8:55 a.m., a Poh Teck Tung rescue diving team located the worker’s body inside the pipe and brought it out of the area for the relevant authorities to carry out the next procedures. Police from Phra Khanong Police Station, Phra Khanong firefighters and rescue volunteers supported the operation.
Phra Khanong District Director Saithip Sukonmanee said the site was being used by a contractor working for the Metropolitan Electricity Authority to move power cables underground. The work was carried out overnight, with the area normally scheduled to be handed back in the morning.
The victim was an employee of the contractor and was believed to have been at the site shortly before the end of the work shift and handover. Workers were expected to be accounted for before the site was returned, but the man was found to be missing, leading colleagues to search for him and eventually discover that he had fallen into the drainage pipe. (TNA)
