Death toll in Thailand climbs to 40, rescue work continues

President Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to find and rescue missing people and treat the injured, after two boats with Chinese tourists on board sank in a storm off Thailand's southern resort island of Phuket.

Of all the 133 tourists that the two boats carried, 127 were Chinese, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Friday. Of the Chinese tourists, 78 were rescued, 33 were missing and 16 were found dead, Lu said, adding that some of the injured have been rushed to the hospital.

The death toll in Thai boat accident climbed to 40, the Harbour Department announced at 1:26 pm on Friday.

Rescuers continued to comb the sea around Phuket for the remaining missing Chinese, said the department in a statement. 

Search continues

The search for scores of missing Chinese tourists whose boat capsized off Thailand’s Phuket island resumed early Friday, with helicopters despatched to the area and divers sent to scour the sunken boat, the local governor said.

"We will conduct air searches and send divers to check inside the sunken Phoenix boat," Noraphat Plothong, governor of Phuket, told Agence France-Presse. The vessel keeled over in rough waters on Thursday evening, leaving at least one person dead.

The Chinese Embassy in Thailand said on its website Friday morning that a team was arriving in the morning to start rescue work.