After approximately 130 hours of continuous operations, rescue workers successfully retrieved the body of a construction worker who had plunged into a deep sinkhole on May 19, at the MRT Orange Line project site in Larn Luang, Bangkok. The victim, identified only as Sarawut, was a native of Si Sa Ket province in northeastern Thailand.
The tragic accident occurred when the ground beneath the worker collapsed, creating a sinkhole approximately 19 metres deep. Rescue teams had been working around the clock since the incident, employing specialized equipment to locate and recover the victim from the narrow and unstable site.
At around 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 25, a rescue team member equipped with breathing apparatus was lowered into the shaft in a final attempt to locate the missing man. Due to the confined space and hazardous conditions inside the sinkhole, team members had to rotate during the operation. Eventually, they succeeded in finding and extracting Sarawut’s body just after midnight.
Forensic specialists from Vajira Hospital examined the body on-site before it was transported to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Police General Hospital for a full autopsy, according to reports from Thai media and emergency services.
Officials overseeing the rescue effort included personnel from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and agencies associated with the MRT construction project, who had been coordinating with rescue specialists since the initial collapse.
