2 mourners missing as southern floods overturn bus
FLOOD torrents caused a bus full of mourners to flip over in Nakhon Si Thammarat with a couple still missing while another couple was rescued from a swiftly-flooded resort, Thai News Agency reported this morning (Dec. 6).
The bus, packed with 52 mourners traveling from Surat Thani to attend a funeral in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Tha Sala district, was pushed into the roadside ditch by powerful flood currents.
Officials, soldiers and rescuers rushed to help and with great difficult got 50 passengers out. However, they are still searching for a couple, Mr Chan Khamkaew, 68, and Ms Manee Khamkaew, 63. They have asked for flat-bottom boats to help this search.
Motorists have been told to avoid this severely flooded route, with the Nakhon Si Thammarat-Surat Thani road closed to traffic as it is so badly flooded even big vehicles cannot pass.
Meanwhile forest runoff suddenly inundated Baan Khao Kho Resort and pushed landslides onto the roadway.
While all hotel guests and staff quickly running out, a couple, an Englishman Mr. M. J. Harklee and his Thai wife, Mrs Chotima Harklee, failed to do so. They were later safely rescued, with officials having to wait for the provincial electricity authority to cut power supply first to make it safe to go in.
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Top: The Englishman and his Thai wife at the flooded resort. Photo: Thai News Agency
In-text: Rescuers helping rescue a bus full of mourners on a heavily flooded Nakhon Si Thammarat road. Photo: Thai News Agency
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