Soldiers in search for bodies of 700 foreigners
Officials said at least 700 foreigners had died.
The stench of death hung over a 19-mile stretch of coast in the southern Phang Nga province, which had been packed with foreign tourists from more than 20 countries staying at international hotels such as the Le Meridien, Novotel and Sofitel.
Mud and debris left behind by tidal waves that struck on Sunday made parts of Phang Nga hard to reach immediately after the disaster, and bloated and rotting bodies remained littered along the shorefront as volunteer rescue crews and troops went about their work Tuesday.
Phang Nga and the nearby resort islands of Phuket and Phi Phi were worst hit by the waves, which killed 1,516 people and injured 8,432, according to the latest tally of the Interior Ministry’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Relief. Of the dead, 950 were found in Phang Nga and 203 on Phuket.
Amazingly, some tourists on the holiday isle of Phuket salvaged broken umbrellas and returned to the beach yesterday.
Yet, only a few miles away, the stench of death hung in the air for an 18 mile stretch of beach north of the island.
Deputy Interior Minister Sutham Saengprathum said it was certain that more than 700 foreigners were among the dead, but the exact number was still not known.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the overall death toll could pass 2,000, given the large number of still missing people.
In Khao Lak on the mainland, some 200 bodies - about 70% of them foreigners - were laid at a makeshift morgue at the Buddhist Rasneramith temple, said volunteer Somsak Palawat. Bloated, black and green corpses, many of them children and babies, were also scattered around the temple.
Near the devastated Similan Beach and Spa Resort, where some 60 mostly German tourists had been staying, the corpse of a naked man hung suspended from a tree as if crucified.
At the nearby Sofitel, executive Ofwald Tichler declined to say how many of the hotel’s guests had died as waves smashed into the 319-room resort. The first floors of the three-story, Thai-style building were destroyed, and thick mud caked the once beautifully landscaped area between the lobby and beach, a distance of some 328 yards.
Several rotting bodies could be seen on the beach, under debris and in a pool of water in front of the hotel as Thai soldiers moved in to search for survivors and the dead. The hotel, owned by the French Accor Hotels and Resorts, was often filled by French vacationers paying about $200 a night.
“I lost my girlfriend. We saw the wave coming. It was so huge we had no time to run,” said Karl Kalteka of Munich, Germany, who was at the beach in front of the Sofitel when the first wave struck. “I saw many kids perish. I saw parents trying to hold them but it was impossible. It was hell.”
Kalteka, who suffered numerous broken limbs and other injuries, spoke at Phuket airport where he lay in a stretcher. He still had hope his girlfriend was alive and they would be reunited in Bangkok.
The search operation around the Sofitel was temporarily suspended over fears that a nearby weapons arsenal at the Phang Nga Navy Base might explode, but Navy Rear Admiral Apiwat Sriwanna later said there was no danger of an explosion.
However, a bomb expert said that missiles and mortar shells from the depot were swept out to sea when the base, at Thap Lamu village, was hit by waves. The expert, who demanded anonymity, said there was a danger the mortar shells could explode but the missiles posed no danger.
Citizens from South Korea, Japan, France, Germany, South Africa, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Australia, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, Portugal, Israel, Chile, Spain and the United States were among the thousands of foreigners in stricken areas of six provinces on Sunday.
The Swedish tour operator Fritidsresor said 600 Swedes who were vacationing in Khao Lak were not accounted for.
Phang Nga Governor Anuwut Medhiwiboonwut said about 1,000 searchers, including army troops riding bulldozers, would move into four areas of the province that have been difficult to access because of flooding and thick mud crusts.
The governor said he expected about 400 bodies to be recovered.
About 1.2 million foreigners are likely to cancel their trips to Thailand, costing the industry some 30 billion baht (€555 million), The Nation newspaper cited the Association of Thai Travel Agents as saying.
Thaksin and his ministers wore black and white - the colours of mourning - at a cabinet meeting Tuesday.
The government ordered the civil service to dress similarly for three days and fly flags over government buildings at half-staff.
