Window cleaner falls from 31st floor of hotel when scaffolding collapses

A window cleaner fell to his death from the 31st floor of a hotel when the scaffolding he was standing on collapsed.

Thanu Chanprasert, 34, was wiping the windows of a high-rise in Bangkok's Soi Sukhumvit 24 area when the ropes of his suspended scaffolding snapped and sent him free falling on August 17.

The worker landed in a half-empty swimming pool on the building's seventh floor and cracked his head open on the pavement.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Suthon Theerapongsakorn of the Thong Lo Police Station said police were notified at 3:49 pm local time.

The police chief said: 'We believe that the incident might have occurred due to recklessness or malfunctioning equipment. We will await the findings of the forensics officers to determine the actual cause.'

Police arrived at the gruesome scene with medics and forensics officers and found Thanu still strapped into his safety belt lying face-down on the floor. Nearby was the collapsed wrecked blue scaffolding with its ropes torn.

Another window cleaner working with Thanu at the time said the incident occurred due to Thanu's alleged recklessness.

The cleaner reportedly said: 'We were both in the gondola changing the sling ropes. Thanu was in charge of replacing the ropes and tightening screw, but he did not do so properly, causing the scaffolding to fall.'

He added that he survived because he followed the safety protocols and secured himself to the building using two ropes - while Thanu had only used one rope.

Thanu's body was taken to the Department of Forensic Medicine at the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital to be handed over to his relatives.