Thai motorcyclist survives 13 nights in the jungle after fleeing police checkpoint and crashing into a tree
Thai motorcyclist survives 13 nights in the jungle after fleeing police checkpoint and crashing into a tree

A motorcycle rider who fled police was caught after spending 13 nights hiding out in a jungle - surviving on only six plums. Patphak Jewcharoen, 27, panicked when he approached a police checkpoint in Tak, northern Thailand on January 6.

The ex-convict sped up and darted down a dead end road.

Officers waited for him to emerge but when they checked, there was only an abandoned motorbike.

National park rangers and the rescuer teams were sent into the forest looking for him and last Sunday (January 19) morning found Patphak.

The exhausted man, who had not done anything wrong before fleeing into the jungle,was found leaning against a tree around 3.7 miles away from where he left the motorcycle.

He told the rescuers he had only eaten six pieces of fruit, which he found in along the way.

He said: "I freaked out when I saw the police because I used to do drugs and was scared and sped up.

"I rode away without knowing there was a dead end and accidentally crashed into a tree before me.

"I was injured from standing on a spiky rock and used my shirt to bandage my foot.

I only ate six hog plums I found along the way.

"Then I had to runaway from the vegetation fire which caused me to go deeper and it was so cold in the night that I had to sleep hugging a rock from the smouldering fire to keep me warm." The rescuers had made a bamboo cradle to carry him out before they sent him to the hospital for further check up.

Patphak was taken to hospital for a checkup.

He was given water and hot food to help him recover while medics tended to his wounds.