A 24-year-old British woman died under anaesthesia during cosmetic surgery at a Bangkok clinic on Thursday night.
Pol Lt Col Chaliang Inthip, investigation officer at Phahon Yothin police station, said the woman's death was reported about 11pm, according to Thai Rath Online.
Police, forensic officials and rescue workers rushed to SP Clinic at Soi Lat Phrao 41/1, Lat Phrao Road in Huay Kwang district. They found the body of a British woman aged 24 on an operating table on the first floor of the four-storey commercial building which houses the clinic.
Photos by Pattarapong Chatpattarasill
There was a three inch-long stiched incision on her tail bone. The body was taken to the Police General Hospital for a post mortem examination.
Sompob Sansiri, 51, a surgeon at the clinic, was being interrogated by police.
Pol Maj Gen Ittipol Piriyapinyo, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB), quoted Dr Somsop as saying the dead woman had previously undergone cosmetic plastic surgery at the clinic.
Before her death she asked the clinic to correct her tailbone area. She died receiving an intravenous anaesthetic.
The MPB deputy chief said investigators would question the staff at the clinic, the surgeons and their assistants, and inspect the premises to see whether it was equipped with life-saving equipment as required by the law.
An autopsy would be performed to establish the actual cause of death, said Pol Maj Gen Ittipol. Authorities would coordinate with the British embassy to contact the woman's relatives. Her name was being withheld.