Rescuer has dead body as pillion rider for 5km trek out of forest

Rescuer has dead body as pillion rider for 5km trek out of forest

Rescuer Montree Phiewphong, right, straps the body of a villager who fell to his death from a fruit tree to his brother Apichart. Rescue workers from the Hook 31 team moved the body out of the forest in Wang Nam Khieo district, Nakhon Ratchasima, on Sunday morning. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasert)
Rescuer Montree Phiewphong, right, straps the body of a villager who fell to his death from a fruit tree to his brother Apichart. Rescue workers from the Hook 31 team moved the body out of the forest in Wang Nam Khieo district, Nakhon Ratchasima, on Sunday morning. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasert)

NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Sibling rescuers took turns tying a dead body to themselves and transporting it as their pillion rider on Sunday from a spot 5km deep into a forest, where the man fell to his death from a fruit tree.

Montree Phiewphong said he and his younger brother Apichart had borne the body of Luang Chodkasem, 73, from a community forest in Thap Lan National Park in Wang Nam Khieo district of this northeastern province.

They had to take turns because riding a rough trail for the full 30 minutes it took to get out of the forest was too tiring for one person with a body strapped to his back.

Luang was a resident of Ban Hua Khao Thong village in tambon Ubon Sap of Wang Nam Khieo. He left the village on Saturday afternoon, heading into the forest in search of wild samo fruit (black myrobalan).

When he had not returned by late evening, his son became worried. He and other villagers decided to ask for help from the Hook 31 rescue team based in Wang Nam Khieo district.

The team launched a search shortly after 8pm, scouring the forest until about 2am on Sunday, when they called off the unsuccessful search.

On Sunday morning, the son went into the forest alone and found his father lying dead under a samo tree. He informed the village chief, who subsequently asked the rescue team to help move the body out of the forest. It was believed Luang had fallen to his death from the tree, about five kilometres from the village.

The rescuers, accompanied by police, used a motorcycle to transport the body out of the forest to Wang Nam Khieo Hospital for an autopsy.

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