An Australian tourist has been found dead in a hotel room on the Thai holiday island of Phuket, just a day before he was due to fly home. The 21-year-old, who was born in India and held an Australian passport, was discovered by housekeeping staff on Wednesday morning.
Police arrived at the hotel in the Thalang district at around 10am after being alerted by a shocked cleaner. Officers found the man lying on his bed with a mobile phone resting on his chest. He had bandaged injuries to an elbow and wrist sustained in a motorcycle accident the previous day. Police said there were no signs of assault or theft in the room.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Thanom Thongpaen, inquiry officer at Thalang district station, said the man appeared to have been on a phone call for about 12 hours before his death. "The line hadn't been disconnected and he had died like that. There were no signs of struggle or anything suspicious," he said. The phone screen was locked, preventing police from examining it further, and no one responded when officers attempted to speak into the line.
No drugs or alcohol were found at the scene, apart from over-the-counter painkillers and anti-inflammatory medication. The man had asked a hotel maid to purchase the medicine from a pharmacy following his motorcycle accident. Police stated they could not determine a clear cause of death but found no evidence of foul play.
The man was travelling alone, though security footage showed a friend dropping him off at the hotel earlier in the evening. Hotel staff contacted that friend, who had helped with check-in, to inform him of the death. Relatives told police they did not wish for an autopsy and wanted to bring the body home as soon as possible. The Australian embassy in Bangkok has been informed of the incident.
