A pleasure boat carrying 20 tourists burned down while moored near Lava Island in the Phuket region, according to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Disaster Rescue Center.
All the tourists on board the ship were citizens of Middle Eastern countries. One person suffered burns and was taken to hospital. to the hospital.
Let us remind you, This is far from the first accident involving tourist boats in Thailand in recent times.
As we reported last week, Deputy Chief of Thailand's Tourist Police, General Surachet Hakpan, visited Phuket and took part in a large-scale inspection of the local fleet of tourist and fishing vessels.
In total, over 400 boats were inspected. Ultimately, only 200 were deemed fully compliant with safety standards.
The owners of the remaining boats received orders to promptly correct the identified deficiencies, and another 10 boats were immediately decommissioned due to serious non-compliance with safety requirements.
General Hakpan emphasized that the order to check tourist vessels for compliance with safety requirements came directly from Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha and Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan.
The police, the Navy, the Ministry of Tourism, the Maritime Department, and other agencies are currently involved in implementing a series of measures to improve maritime safety. Both vessels in service and those under construction are subject to inspection.
The general also emphasized that if unsafe vessels are allowed to operate, not only their operators but also inspectors from the Maritime Department will be held accountable.
As a reminder, maritime safety in Thailand has returned to the forefront following the sinking of the Phoenix tourist boat off the coast of Phuket. There were 89 tourists on board at the time of the accident, 47 of whom died.
Source: trn-news.ru