Police are investigating the death of a French journalist who is believed to have deliberately jumped off the platform at the BTS train system's Saphan Taksin station on Monday.
The journalist, identified as Arnaud Jean-Claude Dubus, 56, died from severe head wounds after he plunged from the platform at the elevated train station near Taksin Bridge in Bangkok’s Sathon district at about 4pm.
He was seen in security camera footage arriving at the station on a motorcycle taxi Monday afternoon, police said.
Deputy police spokesman Pol Krisana Patanacharoen said Dubus had suffered from depression and had recently complained about work stress.
After moving to Thailand in 1989, Dubus became an acclaimed journalist and commentator, working for Radio France Internationale, Liberation, Le Temps and TV 5. In 2018, he took the post of deputy information officer at the French embassy. He was the author of several books, including the recent Buddhism and Politics in Thailand.
"A gentle and modest person, Arnaud was thoughtful, well informed, and always exceptionally considerate toward others," the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand said in a statement. "Arnaud’s tragic death at only 56 is a shocking loss for all of us, and we mourn along with all those close to him."
Arnaud Dubus, 1964-2019, RIP@FCCThai expresses its deepest condolences to the family and many colleagues and friends of Arnaud Dubus, who fell to his death at about 4pm on Monday, 29 April, from the Taksin SkyTrain station in Bangkok’s Yannawa district. https://t.co/zUFKPbXbqN pic.twitter.com/ILgA6l8qHw
— FCCThai (@FCCThai) April 30, 2019
