Warrant issued for ferry owner's arrest

Warrant issued for ferry owner's arrest

BANGKOK (DPA): Police in southern Thailand have issued an arrest warrant for the owner of an overloaded passenger ferry that sank in the Gulf of Thailand last Wednesday on charges of carelessness that caused at least 11 deaths, the English-language Bangkok Post reported on Sunday. On Thursday police arrested the ferry captain on the same charges.

So far police have recovered 11 bodies and said they are not sure how many remain missing because there is no accurate account of who was on the ferry. The dead included two female tourists from Australia and one pregnant Thai woman.

The ferry went down during a storm while en route from the mainland at Surat Thani, 600 kilometers south of Bangkok, to the resort island of Koh Tao, or Turtle Island, a popular destination for deep sea divers and back-pack travelers.