KANCHANABURI: A man in the final stage of tracheal cancer was run over and killed by a train after lying down on the tracks near a railway station in Muang district on Monday afternoon.
Pol Capt Thammarat Sukhiwong, a Muang police investigator, said the incident occurred about 5.30pm, shortly after train 259 (Thon Buri-Nam Tok) departed Wang Yen railway station in tambon Wang Yen for Nam Tok station.
The train driver, who was not identified, told police the train was still gaining speed when he first saw the man lying across the track ahead of him with a cloth over his face. He applied the brakes but was unable to stop in time and the train ran over the man, cutting him in two.
The man was later identified as Suparp (surname withheld), 54.
His young sister said Suparp lived in a house about 200 metres from the railway. He was in the final stage of windpipe cancer, unable to eat normally and had to be tube-fed. He had previously tried to kill himself by putting a finger in a power plug.
On Monday, after being tube-fed, Suparp left the house on a bicycle and that was the last time his family saw him alive. He was later found to have been run over by the train, the sister said.
Police were investigating. It was believed the man had taken his own life.