PHUKET: An elderly Swiss man drowned at a beach in Thalang district of Phuket on Thursday afternoon.

Paul Brunner, who would have turned 86 next month, was found dead at Mai Khao beach in tambon Mai Khao around 5.30pm, said Pol Lt Col Thada Sodarak, a duty-officer at Tha Chatchai police station. 

He wearing black swimming shorts. There were no bruises on his body, which was found about 500 metres from the hotel where he and his wife were staying.

A hotel employee told police that Mrs Brunner alerted the hotel around 3.30pm on Thursday that her husband had disappeared. A check of the hotel cameras showed the man, wearing swimming shorts, walking down to the beach.

Hotel staff searched along the beach but found no trace of him. Around 5.30pm, someone notified the hotel that a man's body had been found in the water. He had been dead about three hours before his body was discovered.

Police sent this body to Thalang Hospital for a post-mortem examination.