A search operation for a stateless Lahu woman was called off on Tuesday after four days of searching by 350 officials failed to find her in a Lampang forest.
Pew Bala, 70, who is a deaf mute, went to collect bamboo shoots in Jae Son National Park in Tambon Hua Muang of Lampang’s Muang Pan district on Friday and did not return.
Some 350 park officials, troops and volunteers combed the forest from Friday to Monday but failed to locate her.
On Tuesday, Songchai Mairung, chief of Tambon Hua Muang Administrative Organisation, informed the woman’s relatives that the search had to be ended.
Songchai said the authorities instead would wait for tips from the public if they encounter her.
