A man, believed to be a South Korean national, has gone missing after being swept away by floodwaters near the famous Thai tourist destination of Pattaya, prompting a police search operation.

According to local media outlet The Pattaya News, at around 5:00 a.m. on the 24th local time, one of three men walking along a flooded road in the Nong Prue area near Pattaya, Chonburi Province, central Thailand, fell into a drainage ditch and went missing.

Torrential rain poured over the Pattaya area for more than an hour that day, leaving various parts of the city submerged.

Following the accident, local authorities deployed divers to search drainage ditches and nearby waterways, but no traces of the missing person have been found yet.

After the incident, the other two men reportedly left the scene without contacting authorities, and their whereabouts remain unknown.

The following day, local police searched a house believed to be the residence of the three men, located about one kilometer from the accident site, and discovered wet clothing items that appeared identical to the outfits worn by the two remaining men captured on CCTV.

Authorities also recovered household goods and computer equipment, including three sets of what appeared to be brand-new PCs.

The owner of the house told police that three South Korean men had signed a one-year lease and moved in on the 12th.

Police are cooperating with immigration authorities and other agencies to verify the identities of the three South Koreans who rented the house and to determine whether they are the same individuals involved in the accident.

To this end, police are searching for the whereabouts of the other two men and investigating the origin and purpose of the computer equipment and other items.

Meanwhile, heavy rain totaling around 300 mm pounded the Bangkok metropolitan area over a 48-hour period from the 24th until the previous day, flooding streets across the city.

The downpour submerged numerous homes, buildings, and roads, halting traffic. A day prior, state-run Government Savings Bank closed several branches in Bangkok and surrounding areas, while numerous businesses shut their doors.

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt announced that all 50 districts of Bangkok would be declared disaster zones due to flooding.

Governor Chadchart stated that authorities had set up some 200 evacuation centers in temples, schools, and other locations to accommodate about 4,200 displaced people, while operating drainage pumps at full capacity to drain a total of 1,200 cubic meters of water per second across the city.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who was originally scheduled to return from the UK on this day, also announced on Facebook that he would bring forward his return schedule to visit the affected areas soon.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)