Death toll of the sinking Thai tourist boat rises to 41

Pic: Reuters

PHUKET / BANGKOK : The death toll from a tourist boat crash off the island of Phuket climbed to 41 Saturday with 15 people still The firefighters have resumed searching for shipwrecked ship wrecked Phoenix, who capsized Thursday in rough waters, carrying 93 Chinese tourists and 12 crew guides and Thai guides in one of the worst recent accidents in Thailand. Earlier in the day, authorities said that a hospital morgue in Phuket was lacking space and called on donors to provide freezers for the bodies.

Forty-one of them were confirmed dead and 49 saved,

"Died: 41. Missing: 15", the Thai government said in a statement

The Phoenix sank after was hit by five-meter (16 ft) waves in a storm off Phuket, whose beaches and nightlife attract tourists.

Tour operators asked why the boat was out at sea in bad weather. The Chinese government has also called for a swift investigation into the cause of the accident, said the Thai government's media office in Phuket.

Pratt Wongsuwan, number two of the Thai junta, ordered an investigation into the reasons

Ambulances unloaded from the bodies in the hospital on the east coast of Phuket that received most of the injured, while the staff visibly escorted family members in distress into a waiting room.

The hospital was stocking bodies in an improvised morgue containers, said a Reuters reporter on the site.

"Urgent! The Chinese Embassy asks 40 freezers," said the Thai government in a call, calling on potential donors to contact the hospital.

About 20 freezers were donated, said Jessada Chokdamrongsook, an official with the Ministry of Health. Charoenpol Kumrasri, an assistant commander of the Thai navy, who is helping lead the rescue effort, said he was confident that divers would complete their search of the sunken ship by Saturday.

"After tonight, if we do not find any The missing will disappear in the wreckage, the missing will rise to the surface and we will be able to find them," he told reporters

Tourism is a key driver of growth in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Saturday called on Thai tourism authorities to make the risks of displacement clearer, including including weather conditions, for tourists

9007] Thailand is in the middle of its rainy season, which usually extends from May to mid-October and often generates high winds and storms in coastal areas

Surathate Hakparn, adding: "We must be tougher."

Thailand is already in the limelight as a multinational effort to save 12 schoolchildren and their children. football coach pi eaten for days in a northern grotto is gaining speed. ] – Reuters.