POLICE in Chalong have taken possession of a motorcycle found near Nai Harn beach with the key in it, but nothing else to indicate ownership. Officers are investigating its registration.


PHUKET: Mystery surrounds the identity of a Western man who drowned in the surf at a Phuket beach yesterday. Police and hospital officials say they are powerless to help and simply have to wait until someone says he is missing.

The man arrived at Vachira Phuket Hospital yesterday as Phuket's sixth beach drowning victim in just a month and a day. So far, nobody has come forward to say who he is.

The only clues: a pair of brown check shorts that the man, aged 55-60, was wearing when he drowned at Nai Harn beach, and a gold ring.

If he walked from a resort, his disappearance should be noted. If he rode a motorcycle - he could have been an expat resident - the motorcycle should provide a vital clue to his identity.

Two Frenchmen are among the string of drownings since May 18 on Phuket. One young American drowned, and another American perished in the water's edge at Nai Harn, the same beach as yesterday's victim.

His death was possibly a heart attack and is not listed among the six drownings.

Also not listed are the additional drownings of two tourists from Phuket, one from Egypt and one from Kuwait, who drowned in whitewater in Phang Nga, north of Phuket, when their inflatable raft overturned.

The issue in that case is whether authorities should have been proactive and prevented whitewater rafters from operating on a day when the river was clearly dangerous.

Embassies tend to react one by one when their own citizen-tourists die on holidays in Thailand.

The absence of the Phuket honorary consuls' three-monthly meetings mean the issue of the overall safety of all tourists in the water - and Thai and non-Thai residents - is never going to be raised in any public forum.



June 19 Unidentified Western man aged about 60 drowns at Nai Harn as red flags fly. Two Chinese tourists, a man and a woman, are rescued.

June 12 American university student Joshua Shane, 21, goes missing at Patong on a late-night swim with friends. His body is found on June 14. Another swimmer requires hospital treatment.

June 8 A tourist from Egypt and a tourist from Kuwait, visiting Phuket, go on a whitewater adventure tour north of Phuket with friends. The friends are rescued when a monsoon-boosted stream overturns their raft. The two men drown.

June 2 A young Thai visitor from Bangkok, Austatiwood Prommarat, 18, disappears into the surf at Patong after he and a relative allegedly hang their shirts on a warning red flag before going into the water. The relative is rescued.

May 31 An American kite surfer collapses in the shallows at Nai Harn, Phuket's most southerly beach, and dies soon after. His death may not have been a drowning but possibly a heart attack.

May 30 Russian tourist Denis Korobogatov, 33, appears to be caught by a ''rip'' tide at Karon beach and dragged to his death.

May 27 Phuket's lifeguards, absent from Phuket beaches for seven weeks because of a contractual dispute, return to daily patrols of Phuket's 13 most popular west coast beaches.

May 20 On a day's outing to difficult-to-access Freedom Beach, between Patong and Karon, Frenchman Stephane Dacosta, 32, disappears into the water. He washes ashore at nearby Kata beach a day later.

May 18 With lifeguards absent from all of Phuket's beaches, Angelo Piazza, 53, disappears into the surf at Karon beach, south of Patong, and drowns.

The figure of seven beach deaths on Phuket between May 18 and June 19 contrasts with just five drownings recorded for the whole of Phuket - including deaths in ponds and canals as well as beaches - in the first four months of the year.