CREDIT : FILE PHOTO
BANGKOK: A 12-year-old Israeli girl who was reported missing after a Thai ferry caught fire on Wednesday (Apr 8) has been found dead, according to media reports.
The stricken ferry with 117 passengers on board was on its way to Phuket from Krabi when fire broke out. Speedboats, fishing vessels and emergency rushed to the scene of the blaze and helped evacuate all but one of the passengers.
Later on Wednesday, news broke that the sole missing passenger was found dead. The Bangkok Post reported that a 12-year-old girl “trapped inside a bathroom” was killed. “She must have suffocated to death as the fire neared,” a rescue worker told the Bangkok Post. The report added the girl could not be found earlier because “the heat of the fire prevented a close search”.
The girl was on vacation with her family in Thailand for the Passover holiday, Israeli daily Haaretz reported. The Israeli Foreign Ministry is working with the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok to fly her body back to Israel, according to Haaretz.
The newspaper also reported that the girl’s “parents and brother were rescued”. The other passengers on the Ao Nang Princess 5 ferry were uninjured.
CREDIT SOURCES: CNA/AFP/rw