PHUKET: A British backpacker was electrocuted when he took a bottle of water from a ''live'' refrigerator while staying on the holiday island of Koh Phangan, Thailand, says a British newspaper.

Friends said Grant Harrison, 36, from London, was killed by electric shock, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.

Twenty-year-old British tourist Charles Antony Thomas, 20, was electrocuted in Phuket's famous Soi Bangla walking street in flooding rains in August last year.

Mr Harrison, who had arrived in Thailand with his girlfriend at New Year, had planned to travel around the country.

He had been relaxing by a swimming pool on the island, near Samui, before he went to the fridge for the bottle and received the fatal shock, the newspaper said.

More than 200 messages of sympathy were posted on a football forum for the loyal Middlesbrough fan, who usually added comments under the name 'Grantus.'

Rob Nichols, editor of the online fan site, said: ''He was a real character. In games, he was either a glorious failure or he would score a dramatic late penalty. I knew him for more than ten years and he will be greatly missed.''

A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: ''We can confirm the death of a British national in Koh Phangan, Thailand. We are providing consular assistance for next of kin.''

Phangan, close to Samui in the Gulf of Thailand, is noted for its full moon parties.

In the case of Charles Thomas, Patong officials have never provided a complete explanation as to how the pavement powerpoint became a killer.

A Swedish couple were electrocuted in the shower at a holiday bungalow in Ao Nang, Krabi, in April last year.

Scores of the 800-plus people who died in Thailand's central plains and southern flooding last year were victims of electrocution.