Man falls to his death while climbing waterfall in Loei
The 33-year-old son of a former district chief in Phetchabun province succumbed to injuries after slipping and falling while climbing the Trad Loei Nga waterfall in Loei province’s Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary on Saturday evening.
Pawarit Chaichom was seriously injured after falling from a height of 20 metres and succumbed while waiting for assistance.
Pawarit had visited the site with 30 other tourists from Bangkok on Saturday afternoon. The site can be accessed only with forestry officials acting as guides as the long trek to the waterfall cuts through a part of the forest frequented by wild elephants and other animals.
It was reported that Pawarit slipped and fell while climbing the cliff at a height of 20 metres of the 70-metre high waterfall.
Authorities experienced difficulty in retrieving his body as Pawarit fell in the evening and reaching the site involves a seven-kilometre trek over a dirt road and through a forest.
As of 1am yesterday, following heavy rainfall, the water levels at Loei Nga Creek also rose while the risk of encounters with wild elephants also increased. The 30 other tourists were also stranded although they had food and drinking water supplies. Officials went in the morning to retrieve Pawarit’s body and also brought the tourists back.
The parents of the deceased waited at a temporary centre on Phu Luang-Lom Kao Road to collect their son’s body. They said Pawarit, their only son, loved trekking and worked as an engineer at a private company based in Samut Prakan.
