Rescuers have found one more survivor and recovered five bodies from a Thai warship that sank over the weekend in the Gulf of Thailand, navy officials said, as hopes faded for the two dozen people still missing.
The HTMS Sukhothai, a corvette in service for 35 years, sank on Sunday night in rough seas with 105 people on board. Officials have acknowledged that there were not enough life jackets for all those on board.
The navy said an earlier tally of 106 people on board was incorrect because one sailor failed to join the journey.
Navy commander Admiral Cherngchai Chomcherngpat said initially at a news conference in Bangkok that two people had been rescued on Tuesday, but later said he had received updated information that only one person was alive and that five bodies had been recovered.
According to those figures, 76 people have now been rescued, five have been found dead and 24 are still unaccounted for.
The most recent survivor, identified as Chananyu Kansriya, was found floating in the sea at about 2pm local time (07:00 GMT) on Tuesday and was picked up by a passing cargo ship, according to the navy’s rescue coordination centre at Bangsaphan in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, near the scene of the accident. A navy frigate was bringing him back to shore.
Vice Admiral Pichai Lorchusakul, commander of the 1st Naval Area Command, told reporters that Chananyu was in weak condition and would receive medical treatment on the frigate, which has facilities akin to a mobile hospital.
He was quoted by the Thai Rath newspaper as saying search efforts had been accelerated, but the missing could not be expected to survive in the sea for longer than two days.
The navy has deployed four large ships, two maritime patrol aircraft, two helicopters and a drone, and the air force has contributed one plane and one helicopter. Small boats could not be used because the sea remained extremely choppy, navy officers said.
The search is gradually moving south to take into account the currents, Captain Kraipich Korawee-Paparwit, commander of one of the rescue ships, told Thai PBS television.
HTMS Sukhothai sank after water flooded its power controls on Sunday night. Images shared by the navy showed some crew who survived in a life raft.
On Monday, authorities said they had rescued 75 sailors, but 31 were still missing in rough seas.
"We will keep looking," a navy spokesman told the BBC.
Search crews worked through the night to find survivors, with the operation continuing on Monday with air force assistance.
The navy also announced an investigation into the cause of the disaster.
"This has almost never happened in our force's history, especially to a ship that is still in active use," spokesman Admiral Pogkrong Monthardpalin told the BBC.
Footage shared by the navy on Twitter showed crew members wrapped in blankets and receiving treatment after they had been rescued. Some were being airlifted to hospital.
Other images showed sailors from the Sukhothai in a life raft, having jumped from the sinking vessel.
One unnamed crew member said he had been in the water for several hours before he was rescued.
"The waves were quite high, about three metres when the ship sank," he said in a clip shared on local media. "I put on the life jacket and jumped. I swam for three hours."Officials said the ship went down after it took on water, which flooded its hull and short-circuited its power room.
With the power lost, the crew battled to retain control of the ship which listed on to its side before sinking around 23:30 local time Sunday (16:30 GMT).
The ship had been on a patrol 32km (20 miles) east of Bang Saphan, in the Prachuap Khiri Khan province, when it got caught in the storm on Sunday.
