Pattaya/Banglamung:
A 17-year-old Myanmar national was killed after being struck by a bolt of lightning while walking through a tree tunnel in Huai Yai near Pattaya Saturday afternoon during ongoing storms and light rain.
Police Lt. Col. Prakasit Paladech, an investigation officer at Huai Yai Police Station, was notified at about 1:00 p.m. on October 3rd, 2026, that a person had been killed by lightning inside the Suan Yai Suk orchard, beside Rural Highway 2081 (Sanam Phira Circuit–Huai Yai) in the Huai Yai subdistrict. Officers went to the scene with a rescue team from the Sawang Boriboon Foundation in Pattaya.
At the workers’ housing on the property, they found the body of Si Jung Maw, 17, a Myanmar national. He was wearing a long-sleeved stretch shirt and black trousers. His clothes were torn to shreds and his body was charred. He was estimated to have been dead for about an hour.
Ekkapong Bunpiam, 55, the orchard owner, told police he was driving workers back to the farm when, near a tree tunnel about three kilometers from the housing, he found the victim lying unconscious by the roadside and barely breathing. Heavy rain was falling at the time. He carried the young man back to the workers’ quarters and called rescuers, but the victim later sadly died from his injuries.
Min Su, 55, said the dead man was his nephew and had arrived to stay with him only three days earlier. Before the incident, the teenager had gone out walking; his uncle did not know where he had gone. The employer later found him unconscious beside the road. They brought him back to the housing and tried to help him, but he died.
Police believe he was struck by lightning near the tree tunnel. Thunderstorms and repeated loud thunderclaps had been reported in the area shortly before he was found. His body will be sent to Wat Yannasangwararam Hospital for a detailed autopsy to confirm the exact cause of death.