Police raid lesbian nightclub 'flouting social distancing rules' in Thailand

Footage shows a police raid on a lesbian nightclub allegedly breaking coronavirus rules in Pattaya, eastern Thailand.

Officers acting on complaints from neighbours stormed The Blossom Fifty Nine Club at 3:30am on Sunday morning (Aug 9).

More than 50 mostly female revellers were checked for drugs and had their ID cards examined to check they were overage.

Police claimed that there were no temperature checks at the entrance, social distancing was being flouted, some revellers were not wearing masks and hand sanitiser was not available.

Banglamung district Sheriff Amnat Charoensri said the venue was operating without ''any fear of the law''.

He said that the owner would be questioned on suspicion of selling alcohol without a license and breaking the region's Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Committee which had been put in place to stop the spread of Covid-19.

The Sheriff said: ''We have sent the owner to be questioned by police.

This should be a warning for other entertainment venues in the area that they must co-operate and follow the laws.'' Thailand has not had any local transmissions of Covid-19 for more than two months but the country remains under a State of Emergency due to the pandemic.

Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin from the country's Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said that further easing of restrictions could happen at the end of August.

However, health chiefs are pushing to keep borders closed to tourists until 2021 at the earliest amid fears of a second wave of infections being imported from abroad.