Five tourists reported missing in Thai tour boat tragedy that killed dozens of Chinese ‘are alive’
But authorities still do not know if the five survived the sinking off the coast of Phuket or if they never boarded the vessel
Five people reported to have been missing from a tour boat that sank in a storm off the southern resort island of Phuket are alive, Thai authorities said on Monday, though it was unclear if the five survived the sinking or never got on the boat.
Phuket governor Norrapat Plodthong said authorities were trying to verify their details and some of them may have left Thailand.
Norrapat said the development came after new information emerged from Thai immigration and the Chinese embassy.
The new information also showed there were 89 tourists, 87 of them Chinese, on the boat, instead of the previous figure of 93, he said.
The number of people who were missing had been lowered from 14 to 10, including the five who were alive but whose whereabouts were unclear, he said. The death toll remains at 42, including a body still trapped under the wreckage.
The double-decker Phoenix capsized and sank late on Thursday afternoon after it was hit by 5-metre (16-foot) waves in one of Thailand’s worse tourism-related disasters since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed thousands.
Officials said all of the dead were Chinese – 13 children, 18 women and 10 men. The age and sex of the body still under the wreckage was not known.