33 Chinese die in boat mishap off Thai resort island
Almost two dozen missing after wave capsizes, sinks vessel
PHUKET, Thailand — Thai authorities on Friday evening suspended the search for missing tourists who were on a boat that sank during a storm off the southern resort island of Phuket, as the death toll rose to 33, all of them Chinese nationals.
The search for another 23 people still missing will resume Saturday, said Prapan Khanprasang, chief of the Phuket Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office.
The accident appeared to be Thai tourism’s biggest disaster in years, and drew sharp attention from the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok.
The death toll jumped after the navy sent divers to enter the wreck of the tour boat, which capsized and sank Thursday evening when it was hit by 516-foot-high waves. It was carrying 105 people, including 93 tourists, 11 crew and one tour guide. At least 12 of the injured were hospitalized.
In images Thursday after the sinking, rescued people sat in large rubber life rafts surrounded by churning seas.
As the seas calmed Friday, divers were transporting the bodies of the dead, including at least one child, from smaller boats to a larger ship taking part in the search effort.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha, the leader of Thailand’s military government, expressed his “sympathies and deepest condolences.”
The government will “exert all efforts to find those still missing and provide support to all survivors of this tragic event,” he said.
Reports in Thai media said police charged the owner and captain of the stricken ship with carelessness causing death and injury.
Thai officials were rushing to cope with some of the logistics of the aftermath of the sinking.
At the request of Phuket’s governor, the Phuket Tourist Association was seeking 80 volunteer Chinese language translators to assist the outgoing Chinese passengers at the provincial airport.
Many of the victims had been on group tours, booked in Phuket and China.
The government of the eastern Chinese city of Haining in Zhejiang province said on its official microblog account that it received a distress alert sent by phone text message from the head of the Haining Haipai Furniture Co. Ltd., from Thailand on Friday morning.
It said that 37 of the furniture company’s employees and family members had traveled together to Phuket and that around 5 p.m. Thursday they encountered the “biggest storm in five years” and they sought the government’s help.