Thai rescue personnel carry a bag containing the recovered body of passenger of the capsized tourist boat. (Photo: AFP/VNA)Bangkok (VNA) – Helicopters and divers weredeployed early on July 6 as the rescue mission resumed to search for missingpeople after a tourist boat capsized in rough seas off the island of Phuket,Thailand a day before.
Helicopters were dispatched to find those who may have driftedaway from the boat while divers were sent to search inside the sunken boat, saidPhuket governor Noraphat Plodthing.
The Phoenix boat was carrying at least 105 people,including 93 tourists and 12 tour guides, when it was pummelled by huge waveson the way back to Phuket from the popular snorkeling spot of Koh Racha,according to Thai authorities.
The boat was flooded and began to keel over at about16:00 after it was hit by five-metre high waves, said the captain, SomjingBoontham. Life jackets were later handed out to passengers and inflatable liferafts deployed.
Rescuers have saved 51 people and pulled the body of a tourist from the seawhile the 53 others remain missing as of 6:30am, July 6.
“Eleven are injured, of those two are in seriouscondition,” Noraphat added.
Meanwhile, the captain noted most of the tourists onboardwere Chinese while two others were believed to be Westerners. According to theChinese Consulate General in Songkhla, most of the Chinese tourists areemployees of a company who were on a holiday trip with their families toPhuket.
A Chinese consular official has arrived in Phuket tomonitor the rescue efforts.
The Phoenix was among several boats that appeared to haveignored a severe weather warning to take tourists on day-trips to islands offPhuket.
Another boat called Senerita also overturned in the same area yesterday with 39European and Chinese tourists abroad. All of the passengers were rescued. –VNA
VNA
