SOLDIERS used bulldozers yesterday to push into a strip of Thai luxury resorts destroyed by tidal waves and picked the bodies of European tourists from ruined gardens and suites as the death toll climbed to 2,000.

DOZENS of parents, desperate to find missing children after massive tidal waves battered southern Thailand, turned up at a local hospital hoping that an unidentified two-year-old boy was theirs.

Soldiers used bulldozers today to push into a strip of Thai luxury resorts destroyed by tidal waves, and picked the bodies of European tourists from ruined gardens and hotel rooms.

Volunteers dragged scores of bodies from Thai beaches, inland pools and once-luxury hotels today with the prime minister saying the death toll from earthquake-powered tidal waves could pass 2,000.

Dozens of parents desperate to find missing children after massive tidal waves battered southern Thailand turned up at a local hospital hoping that an unidentified two-year-old boy was theirs.