Another foreigner has jumped to his death at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport this morning (March 30), following a similar incident in November 2015.

Surveillance camera footage of the latest case shows a man taking an escalator from the third floor of the passenger terminal, and then jumping down after reaching the fourth storey.

Airport authorities identified the dead man as Alan Paul Grimes, 32, who held Australian as well as Irish passports. He was rushed to Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8.06am, reported The Bangkok Post.

An airport official has proposed the installation of more safety barriers as existing 2.5-metre-high glass walls didn’t seem to prevent such incidents from happening.

Suvarnabhumi has seen suicides since opening

In November 2015, a chef from Northern Ireland died after leaping from the second floor of the airport terminal after feeling “increasingly paranoid” about his upcoming trip to Koh Samui, according to a friend who travelled with him.

Edward Baker, 35, insisted on staying put at Suvarnabhumi airport instead of going with his friend to the island.

The British embassy had asked airport police to keep an eye on Mr Baker, who had long-standing mental issues. But he managed to jump from an elevation and was later declared dead in hospital.

At the inquest held last month (February), the coroner recorded a verdict of suicide while “the balance of his mind was disturbed”, reported The Daily Mail.

Mr Baker had a history of suffering from severe anxiety worsened by excessive drinking, noted the coroner.

Khaosod news reported that Suvarnabhumi airport has been the “scene of many suicides since it opened in 2006”.

It said: “There were so many in 2013 that Airports of Thailand announced it would spend 30 million baht to erect glass barriers to deter jumpers.”

chenj@sph.com.sg

Read also

• Vietnamese man decapitated after falling from hotel room in Singapore
• Man falls to his death from Marina One construction site
• Man saves suicidal wife by grabbing her ponytail as she jumps from building
• Watch: Firefighter in China ‘kicks’ suicidal woman to safety

Another foreigner has jumped to his death at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport this morning (March 30), following a similar incident in November 2015.

Surveillance camera footage of the latest case shows a man taking an escalator from the third floor of the passenger terminal, and then jumping down after reaching the fourth storey.

Airport authorities identified the dead man as Alan Paul Grimes, 32, who held Australian as well as Irish passports. He was rushed to Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8.06am, reported The Bangkok Post.

An airport official has proposed the installation of more safety barriers as existing 2.5-metre-high glass walls didn’t seem to prevent such incidents from happening.

Suvarnabhumi has seen suicides since opening

In November 2015, a chef from Northern Ireland died after leaping from the second floor of the airport terminal after feeling “increasingly paranoid” about his upcoming trip to Koh Samui, according to a friend who travelled with him.

Edward Baker, 35, insisted on staying put at Suvarnabhumi airport instead of going with his friend to the island.

The British embassy had asked airport police to keep an eye on Mr Baker, who had long-standing mental issues. But he managed to jump from an elevation and was later declared dead in hospital.

At the inquest held last month (February), the coroner recorded a verdict of suicide while “the balance of his mind was disturbed”, reported The Daily Mail.

Mr Baker had a history of suffering from severe anxiety worsened by excessive drinking, noted the coroner.

Khaosod news reported that Suvarnabhumi airport has been the “scene of many suicides since it opened in 2006”.

It said: “There were so many in 2013 that Airports of Thailand announced it would spend 30 million baht to erect glass barriers to deter jumpers.”

chenj@sph.com.sg

Read also

• Vietnamese man decapitated after falling from hotel room in Singapore
• Man falls to his death from Marina One construction site
• Man saves suicidal wife by grabbing her ponytail as she jumps from building
• Watch: Firefighter in China ‘kicks’ suicidal woman to safety

BANGKOK – Thailand’s prosecutor’s office on Thursday again postponed a hit-and-run indictment against an heir to a founder of the Red Bull energy drink over a 2012 incident in which a policeman died.

For the eighth time in the past year, Vorayuth Yoovidhya missed a scheduled appointment to be formally charged and taken to court by Thai prosecutors.

This time because he was “away for business in England,” a spokesman for the office told a news conference.

Vorayuth’s lawyer declined to comment.

The case is being closely followed in Thailand, where there is a widespread belief that the rich and famous are treated more leniently by the legal system.

Prayut Bejraguna, deputy spokesman of the Office of the Attorney-General, said Vorayuth’s appointment had been postponed to April 27.

“We are aware of the urgency to deliver justice,” Prayut said.

“In principle, we will certainly carry the case through before charges expire.”

Police accuse Vorayuth of running his Ferrari over a motorcycle policeman and leaving him in the road.

Vorayuth initially faced four charges for the incident, but two have been dropped.

Vorayuth faces possible indictments for hit-and-run and for reckless driving causing death.

He could be jailed for more than 10 years if found guilty of both.

No arrest warrant has been issued.

The hit-and-run charge would expire in September if there is no prosecution by then.

The reckless driving charge will not expire until 2027.

Nine leaders of Hong Kong’s 2014 democracy protests appeared in court on Thursday after their surprise summons, charged with inciting the street occupation that paralysed parts of the city for months in what some expect to be a long legal battle.

The nine were charged on Monday, just a day after a new Beijing-backed leader, Carrie Lam, was chosen as the city’s next leader, seen by many as a worrying sign after she had vowed to heal divisions in the Chinese-ruled city and unite society.

The protest leaders, including the “Occupy Central trio” of Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, entered the magistrates’ court smiling and shaking hands with a few dozen supporters, some holding yellow umbrellas, the symbol of the 2014 civil disobedience movement.

The “Occupy Central trio” each face charges including conspiracy to commit public nuisance and inciting others to commit public nuisance.

Six others, including two legislators and two former student protest leaders, were also charged with crimes related to public nuisance.

The nine told the court they understood the charges, but the hearing was largely procedural and didn’t require them to enter pleas.

The case was adjourned until May 25.

Veteran pro-democracy politician and barrister Martin Lee, representing five of the defendants, requested the case be transferred to the high court instead of the district court, so that the nine could be tried by a jury. “After all, the allegations are of a public nature,” Lee said.

The judge says it was up to the prosecution to decide which court tries the case.

Outside the court, about a dozen pro-China protesters jeered at the protest leaders, cursing them in colourful Cantonese to get stabbed, while slapping photos of them with flip-flops.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years, Tai said, adding the activists might plead guilty, in the spirit of civil disobedience.

The former British colony, governed under a “one country, two systems” formula, was promised a high degree of autonomy and the right to select its chief executive when it was handed back to Communist Chinese rule in 1997.

Twenty years later, only 1,200 people on an “election committee” stacked with Beijing loyalists voted Lam into power.

NEW DELHI – A senior Tibetan lama at the centre of a long-running row over one of Buddhism’s most important titles has abandoned the monkhood altogether after marrying a childhood friend in India, his office said Thursday.

Thaye Dorje, 33, has claimed since childhood to be the reincarnation of the Karmapa Lama, the leader of one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

But many adherents of the Karma Kagyu school of Buddhism follow another monk with a rival claim to the title, Urgyen Trinley, who is also recognised by the Dalai Lama.

The disagreement has long split Tibetan Buddhists, but on Thursday Thaye Dorje’s office made the surprise announcement that he had married in a private ceremony in New Delhi on March 25, and abandoned the monkhood.

“I have a strong feeling, deep within my heart, that my decision to marry will have a positive impact not only for me, but also for the lineage,” the statement quoted Thaye Dorje as saying.

“Something beautiful, something beneficial will emerge, for all of us.”

His new wife, 36-year-old Rinchen Yangzom, was born in Bhutan and educated in India and Europe, the statement said.

Thaye Dorje was born in Tibet and his own father was a high lama, while his mother was descended from Tibetan nobility.

According to his official biography, he was just one-and-a-half years old when he started telling people that he was the Karmapa.

Under Tibetan tradition, monks identify a young boy who shows signs he is a reincarnation of a late leader.

In a 2012 interview he told AFP the disagreement over the Karmapa title “tests one’s courage in terms of devotion”.

The Karmapa Lama is not the only senior Tibetan Buddhist title to be disputed.

In 1995, China’s atheist government picked a young boy to be the Panchen Lama — a role already filled by another boy chosen by the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama’s choice was detained by Chinese authorities at the age of six and has not been seen since.

The Panchen Lama traditionally plays a significant role in the choice of the Dalai Lama’s successor.

But China’s officially atheist Communist Party has repeatedly said it has the right to control the process of reincarnation and many Tibetan Buddhists fear Beijing may seek to impose their choice of spiritual leader.

Read more at http://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2017/03/30/top-tibetan-lama-abandons-monkhood-to-marry-old-friend/#jo5df7bbcfsAqEw2.99