Thailand's Harbour Department announced at 1.26pm on Friday (July 6) that 40 passengers of the ill-fated Phoenix dive boat were confirmed killed in the sinking on Thursday.

Rescuers continued to comb the sea around Phuket for the remaining 16 missing Chinese, said the department in a statement. Forty-nine people have been rescued, it added.

Most of the recovered bodies had not yet been sent ashore to be held at Vachira Phuket Hospital. Many had been found trapped inside the boat, reports the Straits Times.

The Phoenix dive boat was carrying 105 passengers – 93 tourists and 12 boat crew and tour guides – when it sank in the Andaman Sea near Phuket on Thursday.

One survivor, a Chinese woman, was rushed to hospital in Phuket, after she was also found several kilometres from the boat, floating near the bodies of fellow passengers. Her condition was unknown.

Helicopters scanned the water on Friday as divers tried to reach the boat which the Thai navy said had sunk 40 metres below the surface of the Andaman Sea, a few kilometres off the coast of Koh He, an islet known for its coral formations and popular with day-trippers from Phuket.

BDST: 1630 HRS, JULY 6, 2018
AP