Monday, December 27, 2004
61 people dead, many missing in Thailand, after earthquake hits Indonesia
PHUKET, Thailand: At least 61 people died, more than 1,300 injured and many others were missing in southern Thai resorts after a major earthquake hit Southeast Asia on Sunday, a government disaster center said.
It wasn't clear how the 61 died, according to the Narenthorn Center of the Public Health Ministry. Most of the dead were local workers, said Dr. Piphat Yingseri, public health ministry's deputy permanent secretary. At least four tourists died. The victims were in Songkhla, Phuket, Krabi, Phang Nga and Surat Thani provinces, which draw thousands of visitors each year because of their world-famous beaches. Choh Soh 100 radio said that flights to and from Phuket have been suspended and hundreds of people were stranded on Phi Phi island. The Narenthorn center earlier reported that some people had been swept away off a Phuket beach by tidal waves surging as high as five meters (16 feet) after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit near the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Several southern Thai resorts were flooded. On Phang-Nga, another popular tourist area near Phuket, people sought refuge from the floods on rooftops. Cars were carried away by rising waters in neighboring Krabi, said Sorajak Chusaeng, of the Narenthorn Center. Watcharat Hospital in Phuket was full, with many foreigners coming from hotels on popular Kamala and Patong beaches, said a hospital official who declined to be named. At least 30 seriously injured people were being cared for at Phuket hospitals, Piphat said. The tourists have told Watcharat hospital officials that they were sitting on the beach when the tsunami suddenly appeared. They said a lot of people died, and at least 30 boats filled with tourists were lost at sea. The meteorological department was warning locals about a second possible tsunami.--AP
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