Westerners among 300 killed in Thailand

NEARLY 300 people, including a number of Western holidaymakers, were killed and more than 2,300 injured in southern Thai resorts after a major earthquake hit southeast Asia yesterday, causing tidal waves and flooding, a government disaster centre said.

An unofficial tally placed the dead at 297, the government’s Thai News Agency said.

The Narenthorn Centre of the Public Health Ministry centre reported that some people had been swept out to sea from a Phuket beach by tidal waves.

About 10,000 tourists were trapped on higher ground, while others were stuck at sea in boats.

Natthaphong Lallopsiri, a centre official, gave the latest death toll as 198 killed, 2,342 injured and scores still missing.

The victims were in Trang, Songkhla, Phuket, Krabi, Ranong, Phang Nga, Satun and Surat Thani provinces, which draw thousands of visitors each year.

Another wave hit Phuket’s Patong Beach tonight, sparking an evacuation of the remaining tourists and residents in the island’s densest area.

Some 2,000 people took refuge on the hillside in back of the resort area, which looked like a battlezone.

Two trucks, each loaded with about 30 corpses, were seen driving through Patong, described by officials as the worst-hit area of Phuket island. Most of the victims on Patong were believed to be Thai residents who went out to fish at low tide just before the waves came.

Some 80 tourists were evacuated from Muk, or Pearl, island and other islands off the coast of Trang province.

Muk island is especially popular with divers but the cave can be entered by swimmers.

Wachira Hospital in Phuket was full, with many foreigners coming from hotels on popular Kamala and Patong beaches, said a hospital official.

Natalia Moyano, one of 29 foreigners and 117 patients being treated there, said at first she didn’t think she was in danger.

“The water kept rising, it was very slow at first, then all of a sudden, it went right up,” said Moyano, aged 22, of Sydney, Australia, who suffered torn ligaments.

“I tried to jump over a fence, but it broke. It was pretty bad. I’m very lucky.”

Among the scores of missing was Poom Jensen, the Thai-American son of Princess Ubolrat, daughter of the Thai king, said Phuket Governor Udomsak Assawarangkul.

Quoting local media, he said Jensen disappeared while he was jet skiing in Takua Pa beach at Phang Nga, one of the worst-hit areas.

Meanwhile, several hundred visitors who arrived at Phuket airport found themselves without a place to stay since many hotels and bungalows had been damaged or destroyed, said airport general manager Pornchai Eua-Aree. He said officials were trying to find them temporary accommodations at Chinese temples on the island.