Bangkok: rare armed clashes in Laos that are linked to drug smuggling have forced Thailand to close a popular mountain viewing point on the border and caused a security warning in the United States.
Thai national park officials said on Monday, May 5, that the scenic point of Phu Chi Fa, on the border with Laos in the north of the province of Chiang Rai, was closed until further notice.
The United States Embassy in Vientiane urged the Americans to think of going to Bokeo province to reconsider after reports of “clashes between the Lao army and unidentified armed groups”.
“Local officials have asked for an increase in security levels, which will include an increase in military control points and a troop presence,” said the embassy on his website.
The disorders are rare in communist Laos, but the country is part of the golden triangle – covering border areas with Myanmar and Thailand – which was a hub for lucrative drug trade in Southeast Asia for decades.
National Lao radio, managed by the state, reported on Tuesday that a border patrol faced on Saturday with drug addicts in Bokeo and arrested four suspects.
The report indicates that some officials of the border patrol were killed and injured in the clashes, without giving details.
Laos police have not responded to AFP's comments.
Suphakorn Phromcharoen, police chief of the district of Wiang Kaen in Thailand, on the other side of the border of the confrontation location, told AFP that at least a wandering bullet had struck a house on the Thai side of the border.
Thai authorities believe that at least one soldier may have been killed and more than a dozen wounded.
