Police arrested a tour operator in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Mueang district on Saturday after 61 of his package tour clients were stranded at Suvarnabhumi Airport the night before.

Patthanat Wongwanchan, 31, was arrested by Nakhon Ratchasima police and charged with public fraud.

The arrest was made after 61 people who had bought packages to visit Hokkaido, Japan, from his company, Pranom Travel, filed a complaint with airport police.

They said they had each paid him Bt30,000 (S$1,232) but when they arrived at the airport, the airline told them that only five of them could fly and the rest had no tickets.

Patthanat denied charges of deceiving his clients, saying he had bought flight tickets from the airline, which had then refused to issue them.

Passengers standing on train platforms are usually advised to stand clear of incoming trains.

Unfortunately, one woman didn’t see anything coming for her – quite literally – when she fell onto a train track in Hong Kong on Saturday morning (Oct 21).

And that’s because it was a man who had shoved the 59-year-old cleaner from behind – for no apparent reason at all.

The incident occurred at a train station in the town of Yuen Long, said the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

The man is seen in a now-viral CCTV video footage approaching the train station employee from behind at Yuen Long terminal.

The video, which was uploaded onto Facebook, has since garnered over 96,000 views.

Once the woman, surnamed Leung, stops to chat with an acquaintance on the opposite side of the platform, the 56-year-old man suddenly reaches out his right hand and pushes her onto the rail track.

He then calmly walks away without looking back. Thankfully, there was no train coming through at that time.

A police spokesperson told SCMP that the victim “suffered injuries to her jaw” and was sent to Pok Oi Hospital for further checks.

The man, who is understood to hold a Hong Kong identity card, has since been arrested. Police also said a criminal investigation was launched against him.

ssandrea@sph.com.sg

Police on Saturday arrested a man for allegedly robbing and injuring a French real estate developer on Koh Samui.

Pongsakorn Kaewmeesri, 24, from Chiang Rai, was arrested in Tambon Borphut of Samui district. Police said that Pongsakorn, and another suspect previously arrested, robbed a French real estate developer while he was at home with his Thai wife, Supaporn Jaipongsai, 33, in Tambon Bophut at 2am on October 17.

Police said Pongsakorn made off with assets worth Bt200,000 (S$8,202) after stabbing the Frenchman in his right arm.

BACOLOD CITY – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has urged the nation to be prepared for any terror attack as the fighting in Marawi City wound down.

Duterte said on Sunday (Oct 22) the ideology of the pro-ISIS terrorists who laid siege to Marawi was “dedicated to killing human beings.”

“I’m not trying to scare you. Let us just be prepared for any eventuality,” he said in a speech in Bacolod City.

“Terrorism is everywhere. No nation has escaped from the clutches of the evil of the (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) ideology dedicated to just kill human beings and destroy places,” he said.

Government troops are trying to end the fighting in Marawi on Sunday, with a handful of Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists making a last stand in a two-story building by Lanao Lake.

Duterte declared the city “liberated from terrorists’ influence” on Tuesday, marking “the beginning of rehabilitation.”

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that the lifting of martial law that Duterte had clamped on Mindanao to quell the terrorist uprising would be discussed before the end of October.

Duterte said, however, that martial law in Mindanao would stay until the last terrorist had been killed.