More missing tourists found dead off Phuket

Three more bodies of missing passengers who were onboard a tourist boat that capsized off Phuket, Thailand, were found by Tuesday morning. The search area was expanded in an attempt to locate the last two missing passengers.

The bodies are believed to have been passengers aboard the Phoenix before the boat and another tourist boat, the Sereneta, capsized in rough seas off the southern Thai resort island of Phuket on Thursday, Phuket provincial Governor Norraphat Plodthong said during a news conference in Phuket on Tuesday.

If those three bodies are confirmed to have been passengers of the Phoenix, then the casualty list would be updated to 44 Chinese dead and, officially, three missing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday.