BANGKOK: Rare armed clashes in Laos believed to be linked to drug smuggling have forced Thailand to close a popular mountain viewing point on the border and prompted a security warning from the United States.
Thai national park officials said on Monday (May 5) that the Phu Chi Fa scenic spot, on the border with Laos in northern Chiang Rai province, has been closed until further notice.
The US embassy in Vientiane urged Americans thinking of travelling to Bokeo province to reconsider after reports of “clashes between the Lao army and unidentified armed groups”.
“Local officials have requested raised security levels, which will include an increase in military checkpoints and troop presence,” the embassy said on its website.
Unrest is rare in communist Laos but the country forms part of the Golden Triangle – covering the border areas with Myanmar and Thailand – that has been a hub for Southeast Asia’s lucrative drug trade for decades.
State-run Lao National Radio reported on Tuesday that a border patrol clashed with drug smugglers in Bokeo on Saturday and arrested four suspects.
The report said that some border patrol officials were killed and wounded in the clashes, without giving details.
Police in Laos did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Suphakorn Phromcharoen, the police chief in Thailand’s Wiang Kaen district, across the border from the location of the clashes, told AFP that at least one stray bullet had hit a house on the Thai side of the border.
Thai authorities estimate that at least one soldier may have been killed and more than a dozen wounded.
