Rescue workers battled rough seas on Saturday as they resumed the search for a British man missing after a speedboat accident that left three foreign women dead.
The Angthong Discovery 3, which was carrying 32 tourists plus four crew, capsized on Thursday afternoon after it was slammed by a wave near a rocky stretch of coast off Koh Samui. The boat had a capacity of 45 people so overloading was not a factor, authorities said.
Three women -- from the United Kingdom, Germany and Hong Kong -- died in the accident, which threw all of the passengers overboard, trapping some under the ship's hull.
Forty rescue workers continued searching on Saturday for the missing British man, said Thanankorn Trabanpruek, chief of the disaster prevention and mitigation office in Surat Thani.
"The obstacle for today is the rough seas, but we will try our best," he told AFP.
The British man, identified as Jason Robert Parnell was travelling with his wife Puja, who survived the accident, he added.
The couple were holidying on Samui to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, The Guardian reported.
The British woman who died, identified as Monica O’Connor, 28, was on her honeymoon, the newspaper said. Her husband Tim was reported to have escaped unharmed.
The boat’s captain, Sanan Seekakiaw, was taken into police custody and faces a possible charge of reckless endangerment causing death, which comes with a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
Mr Sanan said he had asked all tourists to wear life vests but that some had taken them off during the journey.
Travel agent Amm Pontfuk, who has worked with Angthong Discovery for many years, said the boat had not left shore in the days preceding the accident due to rough conditions.
“This company is the number one for my travel agency, I have sent the manager customers for years, I have known him a long time," she told the UK news agency Press Association.
“He is very concerned and professional, normally in bad weather he doesn’t go out -– he did not go out for three days already -- and [on Thursday] he thought the weather was okay and that was why he went out.
“The wind blew very, very strong and it made the boat go under the waves and flip.”