Deadly Jellyfish Kills 13-Year-Old Schoolboy on Thai Beach

The tragedy unfolded on Sunday evening on a beach near the city of Nakhon Si Thammarat in Thailand. According to local media, 13-year-old schoolboy Nanthaphat Boonplod had taken part in a charity football tournament with friends and decided to go for a swim in the sea afterward.

While in the water, the teenager swam into a swarm of jellyfish, which stung him on the chest, neck and arms. Friends and local residents rushed to help him, and the jellyfish stung them too, though they all survived. Nanthaphat's condition, however, deteriorated rapidly — he went into shock, lost consciousness, began foaming at the mouth, and died shortly after. The boy was buried the following Monday.

The Most Venomous Sea Creature

Locals identified the culprit behind the tragedy as a box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri), notorious for its extremely potent venom. This species usually only appears in these waters in November, so its presence on the beach as early as August came as a major surprise.

Experts consider this jellyfish species to be the most venomous living creature on the planet: the venom of a single adult specimen is enough to kill up to 250 grown adults. The jellyfish's body itself is transparent and grows to only about 25 centimetres, making it nearly invisible in the water. Meanwhile, its sticky tentacles, covered in stinging cells, can stretch up to three metres in length.

A Growing Danger for Tourists

At the slightest touch, the box jellyfish injects venom directly into the bloodstream under enormous pressure within a fraction of a second. The toxin attacks the heart, nervous system and respiratory muscles — in severe cases, respiratory or cardiac arrest can occur within just a few minutes of being stung.

What's particularly alarming is that fatal encounters with this jellyfish in Thailand are not a one-off, and have occurred at tourist hotspots such as the islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Samui. In 2015, a young tourist from Germany died from the sting of such a jellyfish; a year earlier, a French boy was killed, and in 2021 the jellyfish claimed the life of a child from Israel.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz