4 year old Thai boy rescued after seen smoking cigarette in viral video
Parents blame local teens and poverty for child’s dangerous behaviour
A Thai man sought help for a four year old boy after encountering the young child smoking a cigarette and playing alone under the Rama VIII Bridge in Bangkok.
The man shared a video of the boy on his Facebook account, แฟร้งค์’ เฟิร์ต, yesterday, May 26, in the hope that a relevant government agency would intervene and provide the child with proper living conditions. In the video’s caption, he wrote…
“I visited the Rama VIII Bridge and saw this boy smoking a cigarette. I would never intervene if he were a little older because I went through the same thing when I was young.
I saw my parents smoking and did the same. This boy is the same. His parents appear at the end of the video. The little boy is only about four or five years old.”
In the video, the child was seen holding a cigarette in his right hand and exhaling smoke. He smiled broadly at the person recording. The man is heard speaking to him…
“Throw it away. Leave it. Don’t ever smoke again, no. Give it to me. I’m going to tell your father.”
He then took the cigarette from the boy and extinguished it. The camera then panned to the boy’s parents, who appear to be living in a makeshift shelter under the Rama VIII Bridge, suggesting the family are homeless.
Social media influencer Guntouch “Gun” Pongpaiboonwet later shared on his Facebook page that his followers had sent him the video. He immediately asked his team to locate the boy and his family.
Gun’s team found the boy’s parents later that day. According to his mother, a group of teenagers may have given the cigarette to her son.
She explained that her husband was suffering from financial stress and health problems, rendering him unable to work.
She was the sole breadwinner, but her income was insufficient to cover their expenses. After being unable to pay their rent, the family moved to live under the bridge.
They survived on free food and drinks from charitable campaigns and by fishing in the river to sell their catch. The boy was not enrolled in school at the time, though his parents said they planned to send him soon. They also revealed that they have three children, with the other two living with relatives in another province.
The boy is placed in a shelter under the care of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security until his parents can provide him with a more suitable living environment.
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