Cops maintain order on Khao San Road
Police yesterday decided to open only one entrance to Khao San Road, the city’s most popular Songkran celebration site, while allowing visitors to leave through eight alleys designated as exits to prevent the place getting as overcrowded as on Thursday night.
The maximum number of participants yesterday was capped at 15,000 people at any one time.
During the first day of Songkran on Thursday, around 50,000 Thais and foreigners were massed together on the 400-metre-long road in Phra Nakhon district to enjoy the water-splashing celebrations, forcing the police to take action and break the crowd into smaller numbers and limit when people could enter the road.
As more visitors arrived at Khao San Road, Pol Col Sanong Saengmani, chief of Chana Songkhram police station, said the road’s celebrations needed to wrap up at 8.50pm on Thursday. Water play had been scheduled from midday until 8pm only.
Only those guests who got into clubs, bars and restaurants on the road could stay on, while visitors who were there purely for the water-splashing activities had to leave.
It took the authorities several hours to ask all visitors to leave so the road could be cleaned.
Although no one was hurt on Thursday night, such a high number of visitors concerned the authorities working to ensure safety in the area.
For safety reasons, only the entrance on Chakkraphong Road near Wat Chana Songkhram was to open yesterday, said Pol Maj Gen Atthaphon Wongsiriprida, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Division 1, speaking after a meeting in which the situation on Thursday night was discussed.
Pol Maj Gen Atthaphon said the entrance at the other end of Khao San Road was to be closed yesterday as part of the measures.
He said if those new security measures were not able to prevent overcrowding, they would have considered suspending the celebrations for a brief interval, during which time visitors who were inside would be asked to leave so newcomers could enter.
Two companies of crowd control police were added to the 100 or so police officers and other security officials and volunteers from City Hall who were deployed in the area yesterday, he said.
On the same issue, Pol Gen Torsak Sukwimol, the deputy national police chief, said safety must come first.
“If there are too many people inside and the police working at the site decide the risk of a stampede is high, they may decide to shut the entrance to the venue,” Pol Gen Torsak said.
Sanga Ruengwattanakul, president of the Khao San Road Businesses Association, said the road would not experience the kind of tragic crush seen at Itaewon in Seoul last Halloween.
“Khao San and Itaewon are rather different geographically. Khao San has several exits and is flat and even,” said Mr Sanga.
The number of police and other security people at Khao San is also high, he said.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha visited Khao San Road yesterday afternoon and was seen enjoying water splashing armed with a water gun he used to spray revellers.
Gen Prayut was there unannounced to inspect the safety measures in anticipation of the large crowd joining the Songkran festival.
Meanwhile, Silom Road was packed with Thais and foreigners celebrating the water festival for a second day, even though the road was not designated as a festival celebration location or shut to allow water fights.
The Bang Rak district office insisted yesterday on not closing the road to facilitate the celebration, despite the presence of street vendors and revellers.
Another key spot where large numbers of people gathered to celebrate Songkran yesterday was in front of CentralWorld, which staged a “Super Fluid” event.
On the other corner of Ratchaprasong intersection, the Thao Maha Phrom Shrine, or Erawan Shrine, welcomed masses of mostly Chinese visitors to see the statue of Phra Phrom, the Thai representation of Brahma, the Hindu god of creation, on the occasion of Thai New Year.