Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Dive boat capsize in Phuket - divers feared drowned

RESCUERS searching for seven members of a scuba diving party missing off the Thai coast have found a woman's body floating close to the accident site, police say.

The body, described by police as European, was found 20km off the resort island of Phuket.

It came as 30 marine police and volunteers searched for six foreigners and one Thai whose boat capsized in a storm late on Sunday.

One Australian tourist was among 23 passengers and crew rescued after the vessel went down while returning from the Similan Islands to the resort island of Phuket.

"The rescue team found the body of a European female floating near the accident site,'' Lieutenant Colonel Wallop Puangpaka of Phuket marine police said today.

 "But we cannot be sure that she was one of the six tourists. We have to wait for a doctor's autopsy,'' he said, adding that the body was being transported to the hospital in the town of Phuket.
The boat, carrying 30 people including 19 foreigners, was reported missing at 11pm on Sunday.
Two Swiss nationals, two Austrians, a Japanese, a German and a Thai member of the crew remain missing.

A senior official, who declined to be named, said the chance of the seven surviving was now slim as he suspected they were trapped inside the capsized 18m boat.

A helicopter failed to spot the seven divers yesterday despite calm waters, he said.

"Now we are looking for specially-trained divers who can dive down to (the boat),'' he said.

Police released the names of the seven missing as Japanese national Hirotsrga Yuba, Austrians Klaus Konradoer and Monika Schuster, Swiss divers Rolf Niederberge and Sibylle Bucher, German Gabrielle Jetzinger and Thai cook Sorntat Jumpa.

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