Thailand tsunami death toll reaches 4,500
Thailand’s government announced its death toll in the tsunami disaster had doubled to more than 4,500 people – almost half of them foreigners – and hopes faded more survivors would be found.
Another 6,479 were missing, the Interior Ministry said. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has warned that Thailand’s death toll could approach 7,000.
Relatives refused to give up hope, despite it being six days since the waves hit. Canadian tourist Dan Kwan was still hunting for his missing parents.
“At this point we hope against hope that they are still alive somewhere,” he said, adding that it was possible they were unconscious or unable to speak.
The Interior Ministry put the official death toll a 4,541 dead, a twofold increase from the previous day. That figure included 2,230 foreigners.
Rescue and identification teams from a dozen countries focused their efforts on a 20-mile stretch of beach in Phang Nga province, north of the internationally popular resort island of Phuket, where Interior Minister Bhokin Balakula said 3,500 bodies were recovered.
Thai forensic scientist Pornthip Rojchanasiri said she had no idea how long it would take to identify all the dead.
“I do not know because we do not have enough equipment, people to do this job,” she said.
Thaksin said in some places dry ice was being used to preserve corpses. In others they were packed into refrigerated containers, but many also were laid out in front of Buddhist temples that dot the wrecked landscape of southern Thailand.
Thai victims who have been identified were being cremated on funeral pyres.
Thaksin said victims’ bodies were still being collected and identified.
“We are only half way through in the work to gather dead bodies,” he said.
Chinese forensic experts joined the victim identification effort, taking tissue and hair samples for DNA testing.
“Our mission is to take samples toward DNA analysis, for example hair and muscle tissue,” said Feng Yia-Kung, who was leading the Chinese team. “We will mail the samples to our laboratory in Beijing and the DNA centre will give us results as soon as possible.”
Cheng-Tsung Lu, head of a 35-man rescue team from Taiwan, said he was not optimistic of finding more survivors.
“We’ll try to do our best, but the chances are slim,” he said. He suggested corpses be cremated to ward off the spread of disease with samples of flesh or skin taken for DNA identification at a later date.
Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Suwit Khunkitti refused to give up hope.
“Anything can happen,” he said. “When these kind of things have happened everywhere in the world, some people have lived for nine days, without food and water, even if injured. So we keep our hopes high and we fight for it.”
Citizens of more than 40 countries were reported to be on holiday in six southern Thai provinces when the disaster struck.
