While the war was raging some of the local people took refuge at a place then called Kra Ph-nga *(Malay for river mount of Pu-nga) protected on all sides by mountains. After the razing of Thalang, it was the government's view that Thailand's hold on the area had weakened, and that a new town should be established in its stead. Thus the citizenry left in the Thalang area was instructed to move to Kra Pu-nga and register themselves as being resident there. There is still a villages in what is today Takuatung District called Thalang founded by those immigrants from Phuket. The new city was put under the administration of the government in Nakorn Sri Thammarat.