These photos show workers catching fish inside the flooded abandoned New World shopping centre in Bangkok.

Abandoned department store in Bangkok
Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters
Abandoned department store in Bangkok
Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters
Abandoned department store in Bangkok
Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters

In 1997, Thailand's supreme court ordered the demolition of a seven-storey extension of the shopping centre when it was revealed the developers only had permission to construct a four-storey building.

The demolition left a roofless four-storey structure. Over the years, rain turned the ground floor of the mall into a pond – an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

People living near the shopping centre released fish into the pond to take care of the mosquito problem.

Veera Watcharagoneyotine, director of a fishery, estimated there were about 3,000 fish in the shopping centre, mostly mango fish, catfish and striped catfish.

Abandoned department store in Bangkok
Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters
Abandoned department store in Bangkok
Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters
Abandoned department store in Bangkok
Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters
Abandoned department store in Bangkok
Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters
Abandoned department store in Bangkok
Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters
Abandoned department store in Bangkok
A flooded abandoned department store is seen in Bangkok. The roofless New World department store was closed down in 1997 Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters

The captured fish will be held at fisheries in Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani and Ayutthaya provinces before being released into reservoirs, canals and rivers.

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