THAILAND Series of photographs depicting a dismembered human body and several people handling human remains has been circulating online for years. The images are accompanied by a story about so-called “Thai cannibals” who allegedly killed people, dismembered their bodies, and then divided the human flesh among themselves for consumption. Some versions of the story even claim that a local police officer was also involved in the alleged cannibalism.
In reality, however, there is no credible evidence to support these claims. An investigation by AFP Fact Check revealed that the photographs circulating in various versions of the story originate from several unrelated incidents. Some of the images show the arrest of three Chinese nationals in Angola in 2017 on suspicion of kidnapping and murder. Other photographs are linked to Thai volunteer rescue workers who handled human remains. However, their exact original context could not be reliably established. None of this confirms that the people depicted consumed human flesh. The story about Thai cannibals is therefore based on misleading captions and the combination of photographs from different incidents.
