BANGKOK: The stench of death began to spread across the site as Thai workers toiled under a boiling sun to find survivors in the rubble of the Royal Plaza Hotel in Korat.
At least 10 people were reported still trapped alive in the collapsed hotel last night, but hopes faded that many more could be saved from the rubble in which 68 bodies had so far been found. Scores of people are still unaccounted for.
Bed sheets were strung up to protect workers from the searing, tropical sun. Exhausted, some stretched out to catch naps on mattresses from the ruined hotel. One man slept in a bathtub.
The rescue teams had worked through the night, using jackhammers, crowbars, hacksaws and cranes. Sobbing relatives stood by, waiting to learn the fate of people still caught under the rubble.
''We cannot hear the sounds of people any more,'' rescue team head Somsak Panrat said.
A doctor on the scene said: ''The chances of finding people alive is becoming very slim.'' Victims using portable phones had maintained contact with rescue workers and one man was pulled out alive before midday.