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Rescue workers on Sunday continued their searched for
survivors after a flash flood killed at least 35 holidaymakers who
were bathing in two waterfalls in southern Thailand.
Authorities resumed the hunt at dawn after a torrent of water poured
over the waterfalls on Saturday afternoon in Trang, a seaside
province 700 kilometers (440 miles) south of Bangkok.
”Seven more dead bodies were
brought to hospital this morning, bringing the death toll up to
35,” said Sinchai Rongdej, hospital director at Yantakhao district
where the waterfalls are located.
Thirty-four of the victims were
Thai, including 15 children, Sinchai said, while one of the dead was
a Laos national.
Trang’s police chief Major
General Kajorn Siriwan said that about 10 holidaymakers remained
missing.
More than 100 people were
swimming at the Sairung and Prai Sawan waterfalls, which are about
five kilometers apart, when the flood struck. The area was crowded
because of the five-day holiday weekend celebrating Buddhist New
Year.
”We rescued more than one hundred tourists yesterday so the number
left is not likely to be high,” said Kajorn.
”Some two hundred people
including police, provincial officials and rescue workers are trying
to find about ten missing people,” he added.
Sinchai said that 17 women, three
men, 10 boys and five girls were killed when the powerful water
knocked them over.
”More than 90 percent of the dead were hit by rocks after they
fell in the force of the flash flood,” he said. “Almost all of
them had wounds on their heads and their faces.”
Twenty people were injured in the flood, he said, with one remaining
in hospital for treatment.
The English-language Bangkok Post
newspaper reported that the floods were caused by run-off from heavy
rain on a nearby mountain range.
 --AFP
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