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AUTHORITIES HAVE URGED tourists to the popular Thai resort island of Koh Phangan to take care when swimming after a five-year-old French boy died from a sting by the world’s most toxic jellyfish.
The boy, who was holidaying with his family, died on Saturday evening after he was stung by a box jellyfish — regarded as one of the deadliest creatures on earth.
While stings from the species are rare, they are potentially fatal, prompting police on Koh Phangan to urge hotels and local authorities to warn tourists to be careful in the water.
Sting
“Preliminary tests found the boy died of a box jellyfish sting,” Police Lieutenant Saengroj Somrotrat told AFP, adding his body was awaiting repatriation to France.
“We have asked them (hotels and resorts) to help warn people and prepare emergency kits if people come into contact with the jellyfish,” he said.
Phangan, in the Gulf of Thailand near Koh Samui, is home to the hedonistic full-moon beach party, which draws hordes of mainly young backpackers from across the world.
The box jellyfish has trailing tentacles two to three metres long that can pack a lethal sting for swimmers. It feeds on small fish and crustaceans.
Saengroj said the season for box jellyfish will run until the end of October.
Irish waters
People swimming in Irish waters have been warned this summer to remain vigilant when in the sea, after multiple sightings of lion’s mane jellyfish on the east and west coasts of Ireland.
The lion’s mane jellyfish is a venomous jellyfish on a par with the box jellyfish.
A young girl in Cork was rushed to hospital this summer after going into anaphylactic shock after a severe jellyfish sting, believed to be from a lion’s mane jellyfish.
Additional reporting Christina Finn
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Problem is that the DUP see themselves as British. They are Irish born on the island of Ireland and even qualify for an Irish passport. They are Irish. Terrified at the thought of being seen as Irish! Their “mainland” sees them as an Irish problem and are dying to get rid of them. 65% of the north voted to remain but the DUP are trying to drag the population into a mess.
@Dave Phelan: very well said and factually correct…..I wonder what, if any, ideas proposals etc the poisonous DUP have suggested/submitted as a way of solving this as opposed to disagreeing with everything and sitting on their arses drawing salaries and cannot even agree to co-govern the six counties….
@Dave Phelan: Doesn’t the GFA give each and all natives of Northern Ireland the right to choose between British and Irish nationality?
If they consider themselves British then they’re British.
The veto which Unionists have had supporting the Conservatives on any kind of deal, even one that allowed them to “Divorce and go back at weekends for conjugal rights” meaning one which any other European country would have snapped the offer at once.. the stubbornly refused. What do they care if the no deal Brexit brings unemployment, misery to their dairy industry which would be deviated the chances of violence being given the excise it needs to return is very real .. but even if Northern Ireland whose majority voted to remain in the EU Even if the Unionists block every deal but a clean break and reduce their brothers in the Northern half of this country to living in an economic wasteland the Unionist MPs responsible will still get re-elected whatever disaster they bring down.
Too used to being in the position of power to understand what it is to concede. This will drag out into next year after Boris quits leaving the 4th Prime Minister to deal with BREXIT. Elections will see the DUP thrown under the bus in any negotiations.
It would certainly solve it, at least in the short term until “alternative arrangements” can be found. But it won’t happen because there are too many idiots in politics up north and in BJs cabinet. The best solution would be for Britain and the EU to come together and decide that a new treaty of Europe can be come up with over the next x amount of years and that will address the concerns of the British people, which in fairness are concerns of many Europeans, including pro EU people like myself. And Britain withdraws article 50 based on this. This would be a win for almost everyone.
When Teresa May made the comment re the Back Stop “No British Prime Minister could ever agree to that” She showed her lack of Knowledge of Irish/British relationship.The most famous of all British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill offered a United Ireland to DeValera if he would enter the Second World War on the side of Britain.DeValera declined but the Unionist Leader Craig was flabbergasted and deemed it a gross act of treachery.
Paul Connolly
@Paul Connolly: You are correct that Churchill did indicate that if Dev could give back control of the ports to the British for to use during the war and support the UK then after the war then they could ‘discuss’ the question of Northern Ireland. But this was so relatively soon after Ireland had secured Independence – so soon after the wounds of Civil War and so opportunistic by a British Prime minister that it smacked exactly as all the other British promises had going back to the debates in UK about Home Rule – not to mention the fact that Churchill would almost certainly not been able to actually deliver by getting that approval of Unionists and the Uk parliament….so Dev was quite correct not to bite ( imagine the reaction in ireland if he had – we are giving the british the ports back but is ok lads in a fews after the war they promise to discuss the North ? And what happened to Churchill after the war ? Quelle supris ??? He was chucked out of power and most certainly couldn’t have delivered the ‘Nation Once Again’ he suggested after a few whiskies when he desperately needed the Irish ports !! Now the rest of the EU and the world can see how the British handle the North – as we Irish have seen for hundreds of years – with disdain as they always use it for power struggles in Westminster. Nothing much has changed there in hundreds of years in the attitude to Ireland.
And the key to that is Arlene or at-least it was when May was shilling her deal.
I don’t know what a backstop is …..
Is this still one closer step to a united Ireland I wonder ?
If Ian Paisley was capable of living with the idea of the people (Unionist community) of NI as British, while the cattle are Irish, I can’t see why that logic cannot be extended to goods and services. The electricity used by most DUP voters is Irish (from the Republic), and I haven’t noticed any DUP voters going off grid in protest, to protect the Union.
Have Scotland also wanted this solution extended to them ?
@Furze: Does Scotland run the risk as Northern Ireland does of the Good Friday Agreement being destroyed and sinking into a quagmire of violence ?. If it does then we can apply it to Scotland as well
@Furze: this is the issue which everyone seems to ignore,the SNP, have said that they will demand a similar deal to NI, and would be quite within their rights to do so,as this was never envisaged in any brexit deal it would be likely to scupper any agreement that was reached and would be seen as the road to independence by the majority of Scots who voted against devolution.this could precipitate an Ulster situation on the British mainland whichever would be a disaster for the UK.
@Bryen O Murchu: Scotland might be part of a union under one crown, but they are still a country in their own right. If they elect to go their own way (either with similar conditions to a Northern Ireland backstop or full independence) then ultimately you can’t stop them, just like the Europeans can’t stop the UK leaving the European Union. You can’t have it both ways.
if Bojo offers the DUP a few extra billion every year and a change of name for the back stop. They will see it as a way to move forward. Bojo will get a deal with the EU and come back to the UK having negotiated a deal and get it passed through parliament
have your say