As the ocean calmed on Friday, divers transferred the bodies of the dead, including not less than one child, from smaller boats to a bigger ship involved within the search operation.
The death toll rose after the navy sent divers to enter the wreckage of a tour boat that capsized and sank Thursday evening when it was hit by waves 16 feet (5 meters) high.
There were 105 people on board, including 93 tourists, 11 crew members and one guide. At least 12 injured people were taken to hospital.
The accident gave the impression to be the worst disaster for Thai tourism in years and attracted great interest from the Chinese embassy in Bangkok.
Wu Jun, 28, a passenger, was sitting on the bedside of his wife, Long Hai Ning.
“When we came out, the sky was clear. We had no idea the weather could change so quickly,” he said.
The couple, who were on their honeymoon at the time, were on different decks when the ship began to tilt, but both managed to escape.
“I grabbed the railing and pulled myself overboard,” he said, adding that he feared women and youngsters were amongst those trapped on the lower deck because the boat sank.
Another boat also capsized off the coast of Phuket during a storm on Thursday afternoon, but all 42 people on board were rescued. One fisherman stays missing after being kidnapped from a Thai fishing boat on Thursday near Krabi province.
The deputy head of the tourist police, Major General Surachate Hakparn, said in a Facebook post that tour operators had been warned concerning the dangerous weather conditions.
“Be careful… nature is not a joke,” Surachate wrote. “The tourism police had already warned companies in Phuket not to pull boats from the shore, but they violated this order by taking away foreign tourists.”
The accidents occurred as rescuers, led by divers from the Thai navy, helped 12 boys and their soccer coach who had been stuck for nearly two weeks in a flooded cave within the far north of the country and were trying to find out how and when to extract them.
Jin Yilin, Consul General of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, announced that a delegation from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is heading to Thailand.
“It is necessary to search for the missing people,” the embassy said in a press release on Friday. “We ask the Thai side to mobilize all possible forces and never waste time in trying to find the still missing Chinese nationals.”
The largest variety of foreign tourists visiting Thailand are Chinese tourists, the variety of which has increased rapidly lately, which is attributable to the growing popularity of the islands in Southeast Asia.
In 2017, Thailand welcomed a complete of greater than 9.8 million visitors from China, the most important percentage of any country out of a record 35.38 million total foreign tourists.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing said China’s top leaders, including President Xi Jinping, were paying close attention to the incident.
“China expresses gratitude for Thailand’s lively search and rescue efforts,” spokesman Lu Kang said at an everyday briefing.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, leader of the Thai military government, expressed his “sympathy and deepest condolences” to the families of the deceased.
The government “will make every effort to locate those still missing and supply support to all survivors of this tragic event,” it said in a press release.
Thai authorities were rushing to take care of a number of the logistics related to the impact of the ship’s sinking.
At the request of the Governor of Phuket, the Phuket Tourism Association was in search of 80 volunteer Chinese translators to help Chinese passengers departing from the provincial airport.
Many of the victims were a part of group tours booked in Phuket and China.
The authorities of the eastern Chinese city of Haining in Zhejiang province reported on their official microblog that on Friday morning they received a text message requesting help from the pinnacle of Haining Haipai Furniture Co. Ltd. from Thailand.
The article said that 37 furniture company employees and their relations traveled together to Phuket and that on July 5 around 5 p.m., they encountered the “biggest storm in five years” and turned to the federal government for help.
As stated within the announcement, the group booked their very own trips to the islands online.
A Chinese tour operator based in central Hunan province said on its official Sina Weibo account that three travelers it had booked were missing.
Images from Thursday show rescued people in large rubber life rafts, with fishing boats and rough seas within the background. Survivors could be seen being lifted from the rafts and sitting in life jackets amid ropes on the deck of what appears to be a fishing boat.
Severe weather, including heavy rain and wind, was forecast until Tuesday. Phuket Governor Norraphat Plodthong said officials would consider whether to ban ships from sailing during strong winds.
Thursday’s storms forced 12 boats with 263 passengers on board to stay moored off Racha Island, a preferred diving site about an hour by boat from Phuket.
Additional reporting by Reuters
This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: Tourist boat accident death toll could rise from 37 Tourist boat sinking death toll could rise from 37
