Three Miss Thailand beauty-pageant contestants suffered minor injuries when a rope bridge collapsed during a Chiang Mai photoshoot, plunging the 30 women into a pond.
Pageant contestants visited the Pang Pao Beach Cafe and Restaurant in Khi Lek Subdistrict to pose for photos on a suspension bridge made from ropes connected to a steel walkway.
Embarrassed restaurant owner Worapoj Chatkanjana had planned for famed boxer Buakaw Banchamek to join the event that also featured candle-making, snakehead fishing, frolicking on an artificial beach, ATV driving, and feeding elephants.
Amid the activities, the 30 women crowded on to the bridge. It broke three minutes later, sending all the highly coiffed beauties into a pond of dirty water. One woman suffered cuts to her forehead while two others got nasty scrapes.
After toweling off and changing clothes, 27 of the women continued the event. The others rejoined the Dec. 3-11 tour of Chiang Mai, Lampang and Lamphun today.
Worapoj said the bridge was built to hold only 25 people. But he promised to cover the three women’s medical bills and will improve the rope bridge.
