A passenger boat carrying 50 to 60 people, mostly Thais, capsized on Saturday as it headed to the southern resort province of Phang Nga, killing at least eight people, police and rescue workers said. About 34 passengers were injured and the rest were still missing, they said. The boat sank in heavy winds and rains about 40 minutes after leaving the tsunami-hit resort island of Phuket bound for Ko Yao district in Phang Nga province to the north, police said. "We have eight dead bodies and 34 injured people at hospitals now," said police Colonel Veerasin Kwanseng, who headed one of the rescue teams. "They are mostly villagers in Ko Yao and they said they saw no foreigners in the boat." "Rescue workers are still working to search for those missing. It is not raining any more -- just waves," he said. The southern provinces of Phuket and Phang Nga bore the brunt of the Dec. 26 tsunami in Thailand, where 5,400 people died, around half of them foreign holidaymakers.
