NAKHON SI THAMMARAT: Two girls drowned while playing in the Tapi River in Chawang district on Saturday afternoon, police said.
The bodies of the two girls -- Natnicha Promrit, 7, and Kanchana Kongkrapan, 10 -- were recovered from the river near Moo 2 village in tambon Nakasa by workers of Tai Teck Tung, a local charity foundation for rescue and emergency operations, at about 8pm after a two-hour search.
Somsak Kongkrapan, the grandfather of the two girls who are cousins, told police that the incident occurred after he went fishing in the river on Saturday afternoon and the two girls followed him to play nearby.
He said he told the two granddaughters to go home for fear of danger and continued to look for fish without paying attention to them, not knowing that they did not follow his instruction.
Soon after that, he heard the noise of Kanchana calling for help. He rushed to the two girls and saw them going down in the water, tightly holding each another. He tried in vain to find them and decided to call for help from the Tai Tech Tung Foundation.
