Officials yesterday called off their search for the missing passengers from a boat that sank in Chao Phraya River in Ayutthaya after the final victim was retrieved from the water.
The death toll for the boat tragedy rose to 28 as the last victim, 89-year-old Thongbai Kantharak, was found in the water yesterday.
The missing two-year-old boy, Apinan Saengkham, was never found. Officials said it might be a misunderstanding because there was no one with the boy’s name in the official census.
Forty-six people were injured in the boat accident as well.
The boat, which carried over 100 Thai Muslim pilgrims, hit a concrete pillar under the water near Wat Sanam Chai and sank while it was making its way back from Ta Kia masajid on Sunday, Thai PBS reported.
One of the survivors, Fatima Kemmanee, said that no one on the boat wore lifejackets. After the boat’s very hard collision with the pillar, it sank in less than a minute.
Fatima was rescued by a man who pulled her to the shore.
“Everyone panicked. The second deck of the boat was in the water in less than one minute. I didn’t even need to think about the lower deck. I didn’t hear any voices from them… they were already in the water,” she told Morning News.
The captain of the boat has been charged with operating a boat with an expired license, overloading and carelessness.
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