An overcrowded boat carrying revellers from a beach party capsized last night in the Gulf of Thailand, killing at least seven people.

The bodies of hundreds of tsunami victims are being exhumed in southern Thailand so that new DNA samples can be taken, a forensics expert said today amid concerns that there may be Westerners among them who were misidentified as locals.

Police paid tribute today to an officer who helped save hundreds of people on his remote island in India during the tsunami disaster, then was swept away while trying to help one last person, an old woman who asked him to retrieve her handbag.

Camps for up to 500,000 tsunami refugees will be built on devastated Sumatra island, the UN said today.