Surat Thani: An underwater team looking for a Russian woman who went missing on Feb 16 after going free diving is considering widening the area of the search after failing to locate her yesterday.
Thirteen divers joined the search party which scoured dive sites in Chalok Bankao Bay near the hotel where tourist Valentina Novozhyonova, 23, was staying on Koh Tao.
The team worked in three groups searching underwater areas between 22-25 metres deep for 45 minutes yesterday. The failed to find the Russian woman.
The team is now reviewing the search plan, which might be widened to other dive areas.
Local and provincial police as well as local leaders were also mounting an overland search, tracing possible paths on the island which Ms Novozhyonova might have used and interviewing locals who might have seen her.
Local police were also examining details the woman posted on her Facebook page describing her determination to break her own free diving record.
Police said mobile phone records show Ms Novozhyonova mostly made calls from the Ban Chalok Bankao area where she was staying.
Pol Col Anuchon Chamat, deputy chief of Surat Thani police, said if the woman had drowned, her body might either be caught between underwater rocks, or was swept out into the open sea in a storm which occurred during the time of her disappearance.
Her body might have drifted to neighbouring Chumphon, nearby Prachuap Khiri Khan or across the Gulf of Thailand toward Chon Buri. The authorities have alerted Chon Buri police to be on the lookout. Pol Col Anuchon said if she died on the island, her body should have been found by now.
Also yesterday, about 20 local leaders, tourist police and rescue volunteers conducted a separate search in the Laem Thien area on Koh Tao. They checked a deserted resort building and walked the trail which led to the hotel Ms Novozhyonova was staying at. However, no clues or evidence related to the woman turned up.
Surat Thani police chief Apichart Boonsriroj, meanwhile, ordered local police to report progress in the search at 8am every day. He said it was possible Ms Novozhyonova's was the victim of a diving accident.