Israeli tourist drowns off coast of Koh Phangan after jumping into sea to rescue son

An Israeli tourist is confirmed to have drowned off the coast of Koh Phangan while on vacation on the Thai island with his wife and four children.

Sagi Mor, 45, drowned after entering the sea to rescue his son, who had been caught up in a strong current while swimming, Hebrew-language media reports.

He managed to pull his son out of the water and hand him off to another tourist who had seen what was happening and dove in to help, Channel 12 says, but was carried further out by a wave.

According to Kan, he shouted to his wife, Inbal, who was on the coast, that he would swim toward nearby rocks and pull himself out from there, but before he could reach them, he was pulled under by another wave and didn’t resurface.

An impromptu search party was immediately organized by Israelis living in Koh Phangan, alongside a search operation organized by local police.

The search was briefly suspended overnight due to inclement weather, but resumed earlier today with hundreds of volunteers combing the area until Mor’s body was located and identified.

Kan reports that the Foreign Ministry is assisting the family with bringing Mor’s body back to Israel for burial.