Thai Pirates Kill 45 Viet Refugees, Survivors Assert

Thai pirates massacred 45 Vietnamese refugees sailing in the South China Sea and kidnaped about 11 women on the boat, Malaysian refugee officials on Saturday quoted two survivors as saying.

The pirates slashed the passengers with knives and threw them overboard before running their boat over the floating bodies.

An old man and young boy were apparently the only survivors of the attack that occurred within the past week, said the refugee officials, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. There was no word on the fate of the kidnaped passengers.

According to the officials, the two hid under planks floating in the water and eventually drifted to a rig belonging to an Exxon subsidiary in the South China Sea, off Malaysia. Workers rescued them last Monday.