Ferry Sinks Off Thailand; 169 Rescued

A ferry taking 166 foreign tourists from a southern resort island to an outlying island in the Andaman Sea caught fire and sank Monday, but all aboard were rescued.

The blaze broke out about 9 a.m., an hour after the ship left the dock on the island of Phuket, 428 miles south of Bangkok, headed for Phi Phi Island, a Phuket police officer said.

Three other tour boats were the first to come to the rescue after the fire erupted in the engine room of the 99-foot boat, the Phuket Gazette newspaper reported on its Web site.

All 166 passengers and three crew members were rescued by the time marine police arrived, it said. Nobody was injured.

The flames later consumed the wooden hull of the boat, and it sank. According to the Phuket Gazette, the boat’s captain and engineer were arrested and charged with recklessness leading to damage of other people’s property.

Police were investigating the cause of the blaze.

Aboard the vessel were 60 Chinese, 29 Swedes, 18 Britons, 14 Singaporeans, 10 French, nine Australians, nine Brazilians, five Thais, three Indians, three Malaysians, two Italians, two Spaniards and two Egyptians, the report said.