SURAT THANI: Six people have been arrested after a closed and locked Koh Samui hotel was found looted, stripped bare of everything of value to the tune of 70 million baht.
Pol Col Yuthana Sirisombat, chief of the Bor Phut police station, said the Chaweng Blue Lagoon Hotel near Chaweng beach was found cleaned out.
The owner of the 400-million-baht hotel with 348 rooms had closed and locked the property after the Covid-19 pandemic struck. The contract with the first developer and tenant had expired two years ago.
The hotel was inside a compound on private property and could not be seen from the outside resulting in the looting not being discovered sometime after it had happened, Pol Col Yuthana said.
Thieves took all they could remove from the hotel, including elevators, toilets, shower heaters, curtains, wiring, power outlets, air-conditioners, pumps, windows, doors, tables, chairs, beds and lamps. All that remained was the empty building structure.
Pol Col Yuthana said that six suspects had been arrested and police were hunting others also believed to be involved.
Surat Thani police chief Pol Maj Gen Sathit Polpinit said the suspects were all local people. Investigators had not found any connection with any outside criminal gang.
Police were checking other hotels on the island that had been locked and deserted, to learn if others had also been looted, he said.