BANGKOK: Thai rescue teams expanded their search areas to locate the remaining 23 missing sailors after the navy corvette HTMS Sukhothai sank during a storm in the Gulf of Thailand late Sunday night.
The round-the-clock search and rescue operations entered its third day on Wednesday.
As of 4.30 pm (local time) today, Royal Thai Navy said the rescue teams have not found any new survivors but will be intensifying efforts to locate the missing sailors.
Meanwhile, Navy spokesperson Admiral Pogkrong Monthardpalin said the search and rescue operations were focused on areas where other victims found on Tuesday.
“Today, the search areas have been expanded to 40 nautical miles southwest of the sunken vessel,” he said.
The Thai Navy and Air Force deployed helicopters, planes and vessels to find the missing sailors.
On Wednesday, family members gathered at rescue centres onshore hoping they would receive good news about their loved ones still not accounted for.
HTMS Sukhothai was carrying 105 sailors suffered an engine malfunction in severe weather and sank about 20 nautical miles off the Prachuap Khiri Khan province at about 11.30 pm (local time) on Sunday.
To date, a total of 75 sailors have been rescued with one sailor found alive on Tuesday. The rescue teams recovered bodies of six missing sailors on the same day.-Bernama