Two foreign divers relying on a GPS to guide them back to Phuket took a plunge when a flash flood swept their vehicle off a road in Thung Yai district of Nakhon Si Thammarat and into a canal on Thursday afternoon.
Both men are diving instructors and one took part in last month’s rescue of the 12 Wild Boars and their coach from Tham Luang cave.
They were trapped in their vehicle when fast-flowing forest runoff washed it off the road and into the swollen Sinpun canal in tambon Kulae, said Pol Capt Sutham Jermkhwan, a duty officer at Thung Yai police station. They scrambled out of the cab and onto the tray as the water rose inside the vehicle.
It was some time before the police were alerted. About 100 rescue workers, soldiers and local residents rushed to help. It took about two hours to pull them and their pickup from the canal. The divers were identified as Seetoh Yiyu, a Singaporean national, 37, and a Danish national identified only as Claus, 45. Claus was a member of the international rescue team at Tham Luang.
Police said the two men were returning to Phuket from instructing at a cave diving course in tambon Krungyan of Thung Yai district. They were using a GPS to guide them. It directed them to a secondary road, by-passing another flooded road, when they were hit by forest runoff.
The two men thanked everyone for helping them.
