A villager hunting for wild-bee hives was shocked after realising that he was talking to the body of a man hanging from a forest tree in Khon Kaen on Monday afternoon.
Frightened, Sopha Lekkol, 44, ran from the forest to ride his motorcycle to alert police of the apparent suicide.
The unidentified body appeared to be a Thai man in his 40s, who had used a pha khao ma loincloth to hang himself from a tree branch in a forest near Ban Sai Fon village in Tambon Sila, Muang district.
A doctor determined that he had died about three days ago. He had no identification documents with him.
Sopha said he went into the forest in search of wild-bee hives. He spotted the man standing with his face looking up at the tree.
Sopha said he shouted to the man, asking whether he was also looking for hives but the man did not reply and continued to look at the tree top.
Sopha walked closer to take a look and a sudden wind turned the body slowly towards him. He could see from the face that the man was dead, became frightened and ran back to his roadside motorcycle.
