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41 dead. Hopes fade for remaining 15 missing.
Rescuers are aiming to have a go at raising the wreck of ‘Phoenix’ today. Divers, mostly volunteers, have been confronted with a scene of horror as they defended 47 metres off the coast of Koh Hei into the wreckage of ‘Phoenix’. They reported seeing mothers still holding they babies, bodies suspended in the lower lounge are of the sunken boat.…
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Five more bodies recovered – 18 remain missing
Phuket’s Governor has updated the media of the current toll from the sinking of boats off Koh Hei on Thursday afternoon. The official death toll issued by the Phuket PR Office is 38 people with 18 people still missing. The identification process is underway on the bodies that have been retrieved from the waters off Koh Hei, south-west of Phuket.…
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Situation ‘perfect’ for evacuation – Narongsak Osottanakorn
Narongsak Osottanakorn, chief of the rescue operation, is saying that conditions are ‘perfect’ for an attempted evacuation. He says that the weather should be OK, in the next few days, for an attempted evacuation. Any longer than this and the rains will return along with conditions inside the cave becoming more challenging as well. This is a more upbeat mood…
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Khao Sam Roi Yot caves get pro-active with safety audit
Khao Sam Roi Yot national park in Prachuap Khiri Khan province has accelerated the exploration of four caves to gather information on cave conditions as a database to determine safety measures for tourists. Khao Sam Roi Yot national park chief Rungroj Assawakultharin disclosed that Sam Roi Yot National Park is exploring those caves in order to prepare information on their…
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Revised work permit laws for foreigners
Thailand’s rigid enforcement on Work Permits appears to be getting a reduction in penalties. Thai Visa is reporting that Thailand has updated rules regarding work permits for foreigners. Amongst the most significant of the changes is a reduction in penalties for those found working without a work permit. According to law firm Duensing Kippen, foreigners found working without a work permit…
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Drilling down into the cave – 100 tunnels drilled so far
As the frantic effort continues around the Tham Luang caves to find alternative ways to get to the cave chamber where the 13 footballers have been waiting since two weeks ago, ‘chimneys’ or tunnels from the top or side of the mountain, down into the cave, are being established. AFP are reporting that there have been more than 100 of…
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Heavy rain forecast forcing rescuers to act, or wait
Outgoing Chiang Rai governor, Narongsak, at a media briefing held at midnight last night, has admitted that oxygen supply within the section of the cave where the 13 footballers are waiting, has become a major concern. He also mentioned the threat from potential heavy rains in the next few days that is forcing the rescue teams to consider a premature…
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Messages from inside the Tham Luang Caves
Whilst they’re waiting for the rescue to start, the 13 trapped footballers have been taking time to write some messages to their families and the outside world, with a special note for their teachers. One message read… “Don’t worry. We are all healthy. We want to eat many kinds of food from outside. When we are out from the cave,…
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“Urgent need to extract the survivors”, Chiang Rai Governor
A breakdown of rescue efforts at Chiang Rai in an excellent graphic from The Nation. Last night the former Governor of Chiang Rai at a midnight media conference said that there was an urgent need to extract the 13 with the threat of more rain and the health deterioration of some of the 13 survivors. The authorities and personnel involved…
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Search continues today for survivors. 23 remain missing.
With the body count numbers still in flux, as the recovery mission continues, the Phuket PR Office says the official death toll is 33 tourists that have died with dozens still missing. Strong winds and high waves sunk the dive yacht Phoenix, packed with mainly Chinese visitors, late on Thursday afternoon when a weather front came in from the Andaman…
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Thaiger TV: Update on the two big stories from Thailand today
https://www.facebook.com/thethaigernews/videos/1774414402636380/
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Phuket: 40 bodies recovered. 16 Chinese tourists remain missing.
The Phuket Harbour Department has announced that 40 passengers of the ill-fated Phoenix dive boat are confirmed dead as a result of the sinking of the vessel yesterday afternoon. Rescuers, led by the Royal Thai Navy, continue to comb the seas around Phuket for the remaining 16 missing Chinese, says the department in a statement. 49 people have…
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Deputy PM foreshadows legal action against captain and owner of ‘Phoenix’
PHOTO: ‘Phoenix’ from Siraphop Srakaew Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan is threatening legal action against the captain and the owner of the ‘Phoenix’, the ill-fated tourist boat that sank yesterday evening off the south-west coast of Phuket. General Prawit says the captain and owner of the Phoenix boat will be held responsible for the accident. ‘Phoenix’ sank with 105 people on…
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Phuket: UPDATE. What we know 2.15pm
Friday, 2.15pm • 21 dead bodies have now been recovered from near Koh Maiton and just off the coast of Koh Keaw (east Phuket) • Up to 35 remain missing (figure is continually being revised) • A Chinese female tourist has been pulled out of the Andaman Sea, alive. She has been taken to Vachira Hospital in Phuket Town in…
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Phuket: Seventeen more bodies recovered. 39 remain missing
Navy sailors have located 17 more bodies from the sea off Phuket, raising the number of confirmed deaths in boat accidents to 18, while 39 Chinese tourists remain missing. Officials aboard HTMS Long Lom recovered 12 bodies at 10.50am near the location where the tour boat Phoenix sank after being slammed by huge waves on its way back to Phuket…
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Phuket: UPDATE. What we know.
What we currently know at 11am, Friday morning, Thai time… • 7 dead bodies have been recovered near Koh Maiton • Up to 50 remain missing (figure is continually being revised) • One body of a Chinese tourist was recovered last last night • Navy SEAL divers are searching the sunken ‘Phoenix’ boat for bodies • Two boats sank in…
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Mae Hong Son: Plane crash. Injured trooper rushed to hospital, bodies retrieved.
Rescuers have rushed an injured Army trooper to hospital and retrieved three bodies after an Army Cessna 182 light aeroplane crashed in Mae Hong Son province near the Myanmar border on Thursday. A rescue team from the 17th Infantry Regiment, local defence volunteers from Ban Huay Pheung village, the Mae Hong Song Disaster Mitigation Office as well as a medical…
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Chiang Rai: Former Thai Navy SEAL dies during rescue
A former Thai navy SEAL has died while on the way way back to the ‘hall 3’ area from where the 13 footballers are stranded. He was participating in the rescue of the 13 footballers in the Tham Luang Caves in Chiang Rai. He had finished his paid work with the Thai Navy SEAL team but was working with the rescue…
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56 still missing as search continues off Phuket
Latest update as of 9am Thailand Time, from the Phuket PR Office, states that one Chinese tourist has been found dead and 56 are still missing in two major marine incidents yesterday afternoon (July 5). Chinese tourists are still missing following the capsize off Phuket. Divers are currently scouring the sunken vessel, the Phoenix, for missing people. The tour boat…
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Phuket boats banned from leaving port
Some Phuket boats have been banned to leaving port today (July 6). Tourist Police have warned tour operators not to leave from Phuket’s piers. The Phuket Marine Office Chief, Surat Sirisaiyat, says, “The Phuket Marine Office has been informed from the Meteorological Department that heavy rains and strong winds will hit the southern part of Thailand on the Andaman Sea. Waves are…
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14 flights delayed, 6 diverted, black-outs at airport as storms hit Phuket
File photo/Air Asia plane arrives at Phuket International Airport. Many flights were unable to land safely at Phuket International Airport on time and had to be diverted. There were power outages around the airport lasting from six minutes to many hours yesterday (July 5). Fourteen flights were delayed as planes were not able to land due to the wind squalls…
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“Unrealistic and very risky.” Academic warns about cave rescue.
By Pratch Rujianrom Associate Professor Ariya Aruninta from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok is warning that the focus on evacuating the trapped 13 by drying the cave was unrealistic and very risky. Draining water out of the Tham Luang cave is an impossible mission, she claims, even as the rescue operation makes headway and pumping water from the flooded cave has…
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Many still missing, one dead. Search resumes this morning off Phuket.
Chinese tourists are still missing following a capsize off Phuket late yesterday afternoon (Thursday). Divers are currently scouring the sunken vessel, the Phoenix, for missing people. The tour boat was one of two reported to have capsized yesterday late afternoon. Phuket’s Governor Plodthong is keeping the media up to date with regular briefings. A sudden wind equal hit the Andaman…
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Carnage off the coast of Phuket
Thursday, July 5, 8.30pm. Two tour boats sank off Phuket late this afternoon, forcing about 130 tourists into the sea until fishermen and marine police came to their rescue. There are currently no reports of casualties but a relief operation centre has been set up at Chalong Bay for the victims. A local fishing boat retrieved passengers from a liferaft…
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Open letter from His Majesty The King
Letter from His Majesty Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun I am pleased and greatly relieved to learn that, on 2nd July, 2018, the rescuers have reach all 12 youth footballers of Moo Pa (Wild Boar) Academy Football Club and their coach who were trapped inside Tham Luang caves in Tham Luang – Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park on 23rd June, 2018. This…
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So close, yet so far – challengers ahead for divers and survivors
Whilst rescuers are tackling the tricky task of removing the 13 trapped footballers from the Tham Luang caves, the Governor of Chiang Rai has shared some of the latest thinking and strategies from the divers and rescue team. Doctors say that the 13 survivors are not physically ready to be taken out after their extended stay in total darkness for…
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Koh Chang: Chinese swimmers rescued off Sai Khao beach
Thai PBS is reporting that three Chinese tourists have been rescued off Koh Chang, near the Cambodian border off the coast, south of Pattaya. Rescue workers saw the three of them caught by a rip current while swimming in the sea off Sai Khao beach on early this afternoon (Wednesday) in defiance of red flags along the beach. One of the…
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10 million baht to develop Phuket OTOP villages
Phuket is developing its OTOP Villages with a 10 million baht budget to support local tourism. OTOP stands for ‘One Tambon (meaning sub-district) One Product’. It is a local entrepreneurship stimulus program which aims to support the unique locally made and marketed products of each Thai tambon all over Thailand. OTOP drew its inspiration from Japan’s successful One Village One…
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Chiang Rai: A crash course in swimming and diving
PHOTO: Thai Navy SEALS “Rescue teams have been giving crash courses in swimming and diving as part of complex preparations to evacuate the footballers trapped in Tham Luang cave.” Chiang Rai’s Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn says he still can’t be specific as to when and how the survivors would be taken out of the cave where they have been stranded since…
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