Kiwi tourist falls to his death while taking selfie photo from moving train on Thailand’s ‘death railway’

Patrick Ward was on the infamous "death railway" in Kanchanaburi province in, Thailand when he fell to his death attempting to take a photo. Photo / Getty Images

A New Zealand tourist has fallen to his death from a moving train on the World War II “death railway” in Kanchanaburi province in western Thailand.

Patrick Ward, 45, had come with a group led by a tour guide from River Kwai bridge and rode the train yesterday to see the death railway, also known as the Thai-Burma Railway.

Ward opened a door of the train and tried to take a selfie to show the view outside but he slipped on the steps at the door and fell to his death, The Strait Times reported.

Police were alerted just before noon (local time) that a foreign tourist had died after falling about 10m from a train to the ground below the death railway at Krasae Cave in Sai Yok district.

Ward’s fall was captured on video by a tourist in the area.

Since there was no ladder or other way to climb down in that area, rescuers had to create a makeshift pulley system to lower themselves and pull the body out.

Police said when rescuers spotted him, he was barely breathing.

Ward’s right arm and neck broke in the fall. Rescuers tried to resuscitate him for about half an hour.

Police said they would contact the New Zealand embassy in Bangkok to take custody of the body.

The death railway, connecting Thailand and Burma, was built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian labourers and prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, to supply troops and weapons for Japan’s Burma campaign in World War II.

An estimated 180,000 to 250,000 Southeast Asian civilians and more than 60,000 Allied prisoners of war were subjected to forced labour during the construction. More than 100,000 of them died.