Angry residents have blocked Phuket's main east road and through traffic was still being held up at 10.15pm, police told Phuketwan tonight. Police narrowly escaped with the man villagers wanted to beat. He was crying for salvation but had not been drinking, sources said.


PHUKET: A man and a woman were killed tonight in a New Year holiday motorcycle crash on Phuket's east coast, near Baan Yamu, police have confirmed.

The motorcycle being ridden by the couple was hit by a pick-up. Thalang police said the crash took place at 7.35pm.

A Phuketwan reader wrote soon after, saying: ''The driver from the pick-up truck was drunk, and had a beating from the local Muslims already.

''They are blocking the road now as we speak, and won't let the tow truck getting near the wreckage until somebody shows up who will be held responsible, besides the driver.''

Residents along the road east from Phuket's Heroines Monument have been known in the past to vent their anger over road deaths by blocking Srisoonthorn Road or its extension, Paklok-Munagmai Road, and demanding action.

The deaths of the couple - initially incorrectly reported to be two women - take Phuket's fatality toll in the ''Seven Days of Danger'' safety campaign to three. The campaign began on April 11 and runs for a week.

Last year, seven people died on Phuket in the Songkran holiday period, with six of the deaths coming when a pick-up laden with Burmese collided with a tourist bus on the Big Buddha Hill in southern Phuket.