Tourists back on the beach while others lie dead in the open

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.

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.

Amazingly, some tourists on the holiday isle of Phuket salvaged broken umbrellas and returned to the beach today.

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.

Some 200 bodies, by volunteer Somsak Palawat’s count, lay within the Buddhist Rasneramith temple, up to 70% of them foreigners. 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 60 mostly German tourists had been staying, the corpse of a naked man hung suspended from a tree as if crucified.

A police patrol boat lay beached more than half a mile from the sea.

“Khao Lak will take several years to restore,” Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in Bangkok.

This area of Phang Nga Province suffered the most casualties when tidal waves crashed into Thailand’s southern beach and island resorts on Sunday, killing 1,010 people and injuring 7,572, according to the latest tally.

Of the dead, 537 were found in Phang Nga province and 203 on Phuket Island.

Thaksin said he expected the death toll to climb over 2,000 given the large number of people still missing people, many of them foreigners from more than 20 countries who packed the wildly popular resorts during the height of the tourist season.

The premier and his ministers wore black and white – the colours of mourning - at today’s cabinet meeting and the government ordered all civil servants to fly flags at half-mast and likewise wear mourning clothes for the next three days.

The cabinet urged all Thais and foreigners to conduct religious rites as a gesture of condolence for the earthquake victims on Thursday.

He said the government would provide tourists who had lost their money in the disaster with airline tickets to return home.

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 today.

The devastated stretch between Takua Pa and Khao Lak, 62 miles north of Phuket, was the site of hotels such as Le Meridien, Novotel, Khao Lak Laguna and the Sofitel Magic Lagoon Resort and Spa.

Sofitel executive Ofwald Tichler declined to say how many of the hotel’s guests had died as waves smashed into the 319-room, luxury resort.

The first floors of the three-storey, Thai-style hotel were destroyed, and thick mud caked the once beautifully landscaped area between the lobby and beach, a distance of some 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 tourists paying €142.10 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.

A bomb expert said that missiles and mortar shells from the depot were swept out to sea when the base was hit by waves.

About 1.2 million foreigners are likely to cancel their trips to Thailand, resulting in lost revenue of €554.3m, the Association of Thai Travel Agents said.

Phuket, which alone receives about 1.5 million tourists during the peak holiday season between November and February, is expected to suffer among the greatest losses.

But on Phuket’s Kata beach, some foreign tourists Monday afternoon had already collected broken beach umbrellas and were back relaxing on the sand – despite some locals spreading rumours that more waves were about to hit the island.

In the evening, some small restaurants that survived were packed out with foreigners.

“Even though we can quickly rebuild hotels, it will take some time to draw back tourists to the affected areas,” the prime minister said.