Thai authorities have identified the man as 45 Patrick Ward of New Zealand.
Ward was part of a tourist group travelling on the infamous Thai-Burma World War II ‘Death Railway’ when according to witness reports, he opened the train carriage door to take a selfie, but slipped on the steps outside the door and fell about 10m down a steep embankment.
When rescuers found him he was barely breathing, having broken his neck and arm. Resuscitation attempts were not successful and he died at the scene.
A tourist reportedly captured the moment Ward fell on camera, according the The Straits Times.
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 over 60,000 Allied prisoners of war were subjected to forced labour during the construction. More than 100,000 of them died.
