UBON RATCHATHANI, Thailand – A 48-year-old Thai woman tourist has died after slipping while taking photographs at Kuang Ton Waterfall in Pha Taem National Park, Khong Chiam district, Ubon Ratchathani Province on the evening of 19 September. The woman, Wansisa, fell from the second tier of the waterfall to a lower level more than 10 metres below, with park officials warning that rocks and stone terraces around waterfalls are particularly slippery during the rainy season.

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Staff at the Pha Chanadai Tourist Service Centre received the report of a tourist falling from a cliff near Kuang Ton Waterfall, close to Pha Kampan, and contacted the Khong Chiam rescue unit before heading to the site. The waterfall area is more than three kilometres on foot from the tourist service centre, and on arrival officials found members of the tourist group distressed by what had happened. Park officers and Khong Chiam rescue volunteers then descended to the lower level, a journey which took more than 40 minutes, where they found the woman with no signs of life. Rescue workers attempted CPR but were unable to revive her, and her body was brought back up to the waterfall area before police and medical staff attended the scene.

Police Colonel Santiphap Saingam, superintendent of Khong Chiam Police Station, was notified and attended with investigators and a doctor from Khong Chiam Hospital, and the body was sent to the forensic department at Sunpasitthiprasong Hospital to establish the cause of death. Pramuan Rattanawan, head of Pha Taem National Park, expressed condolences to the woman’s family, saying a group of 14 tourists had registered to visit and camp at Kuang Ton Waterfall in the Pha Chanadai area.

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Friends told park staff that the woman had walked down to the waterfall’s second tier to take photographs when she slipped and fell. The park received the alert at 3.45pm and sent a tourist assistance team and nurse, but the route to the casualty took more than 40 minutes. Park officials said they had been told the group leader had visited the area many times and did not want a forestry officer to guide the party, and after the group registered, staff allowed them to continue their visit.

-Thailand News (TN)