Visitor goes missing in flooded Pattaya

People make their way through waist-deep floodwater in Pattaya early Thursday morning. (Photos: Amporn Sangkaew) A man believed to be a foreigner went missing after his group fell into a canal while they were wading through a flooded alley in Pattaya early Thursday morning.

Heavy downpours started in Pattaya at about 11pm on Wednesday and continued into early Thursday morning. Floods hit Pattaya 3 Road, a road parallel to the railway tracks, Soi Bua Khao and the Walking Street.

At about 5am three men, believed to be Koreans, were wading through floodwater on Map Yai Lia 45 Road when two of them fell into a drainage canal.

A 17-year-old eyewitness said he grabbed one man and another was able to hang onto a handrail, but the third man was swept away by the strong current of the canal.

Local residents said the visitors might not have known there was a canal as the area was flooded.