Tidal waves kill up to 700 in southern Thailand

Rescue teams converged on beaches and remote islands in search of the missing today as the Thai prime minister said up to 700 people perished when earthquake-spawned tidal waves devastated idyllic resort areas of southern Thailand.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said between 600 and 700 persons had died when the waves and flooding struck the international resort island of Phuket and the surrounding region.

Maj. Gen. Kokiet Wongworachart, commander of Phuket’s police force, said that 35 of the victims who died on the island had been identified as foreigners. But the number of Western and Asian tourists who perished is expected to be far higher.

Media reported nationals of South Korea, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, Chile and the United States as among the dead and missing.

Earlier, Dr. Piphat Yingseri, a senior official of the Public Health Ministry in Bangkok, said 431 people died and more than 4,100 were injured in the disaster that struck eight provinces in the south.