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Russian travel operators do not confirm death of their clients in ferryboat wreck in Thailand

Local police said that two Russians had been killed in the accident
AP Photo/Daily News
AP Photo/Daily News

MOSCOW, November 3 (Itar-Tass) - Neither of Russian travel companies, which sell tour to Thailand, have confirmed the death of any of their clients in a ferryboat accident near Thailand’s Pattaya, executive director of the Association of Russian Travel Operator Maya Lomidze told Itar-Tass on Sunday.

According to local police, the two-deck ferryboat with about 200 people, including foreign tourists was on a redeye flight from the island of Ko Lan to Pattaya, when it overturned some 100 metres off the coastline. An investigation is underway.

“It was a regular ferryboat serving the route between Pattaya and Ko Lan, which was on its way back to Pattaya,” Lomidze said. “It is a general practice that tourists buy tickets to this ferryboat themselves. If any Russian tourists were onboard this ferryboat, what matters most is whether they has medical insurance.”

“So far, we have no list of those killed and injured in the accident, so it is difficult to say anything more concrete about this situation,” she noted.

Earlier on Sunday, Itar-Tass got in touch with Andrei Dvornikov, head of the consular department of the Russian embassy in Thailand. “As of now, we know that eighty people were saved. Ten were injured and taken to hospital. Among them, there are at least two Russians - a woman and a minor. So far, we have no information about killed Russians,” he told Itar-Tass.

In the mean time, local police said that two Russians had been killed in the accident. Other victims were a Chinese citizen and three Thailand nationals.