A 14-year-old boy helping harvest sugarcane has been killed in a gruesome accident involving a combine harvester in Kanchanaburi province.
Photo by Piyarach Chongcharoen
Police received a report of the death late Tuesday afternoon.
The boy was working at a sugarcane plantation in tambon Takhram En of Tha Maka district. Investigators were shocked on arriving at the scene, finding hacked up body parts scattered in the field.
The victim's severed head and mutilated torso were found inside the harvester.
The victim was identified as Watchara Chaisit, 14.
Arthit Thananuparbpan, 38, the farm owner, told the police that he had recently hired Watchara, a Khon Kaen native.
The harvester operator, only known by his nickname, Kai, fled after the incident. Investigators are looking for him, wanting to question him about the incident to determine whether it was an accident.
The dead boy's job was the collect the cane cut by the harvester for loading on trucks. He was new to the job and had been working with them for only a week.
A co-worker said five of them working together, but Watchara had disappeared and not been seen for a while.
They did not know about the accident until his mutilated body was found in the harvester.
They suspected the boy had sneaked off to take a rest, and maybe gone to sleep in the cane and then been harvested along with the crop.