PATTAYA — A chef and his friends found the body of a foreign man caught in their hooks while fishing in the early hours of Friday.
The man, aged 30-35, was found in the sea at Bali Hai pier in tambon Nong Phreu in Bang Lamung district, said Pol Lt Sanan Khotanan, a duty officer at the Pattaya police station.
The body, clad in a black T-shirt and black trousers, was floating face-down in the sea when police arrived around 3am on Friday.
While retrieving the body, rescue workers found an iron splint in his left leg. There were no identification documents on his body, police said.
The officers believed he had died at least three hours before the body was discovered. They said judging from the looks, the man might have come from the Middle East.
Sornnarai Techapanurak, 27, the Japanese-food chef who found the body, told police he and three friends were fishing at the pier at the time. Suddenly, he felt something heavy got trapped in his bait hook. He thought it might have been a big squid.
He then asked his friends to help pull the rod to the pier, but they were shocked to find a human body instead. They immediately left the fishing devices and alerted police.
Authorities were investigating.