Thai navy ship sinks with over 100 sailors; rescue operations on

A Thai navy ship sunk in the Gulf of Thailand on Sunday and ships and helicopters were working on Monday to rescue sailors from the water. As of midmorning, 75 sailors had been rescued and 31 were still in the water, the Thai navy said.

Strong winds blew seawater onto the HTMS Sukhothai corvette and knocked out its electrical system on Sunday evening. The Royal Thai Navy dispatched three frigates and two helicopters with mobile pumping machines to try to assist the disabled ship by removing the seawater but it couldn’t do so because of the winds.

On patrol duty

The loss of power allowed more seawater to flow into the vessel, causing it to list and sink. It occurred while the warship was on patrol at sea 32 kilometres from the pier at Bangsaphan district in Prachuap Khiri Khan province.

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The navy posted images and video footage on its Twitter account showing a group of personnel in orange vests in a black inflatable raft moving away from a ship in darkness as waves swelled around it. It was not immediately clear how many rafts had been deployed.

Hit by strong waves

The Sukhothai, a US-built corvette in use since 1987, was hit by strong waves on Sunday, forcing it to tilt to one side before becoming flooded with seawater, navy spokesperson Admiral Pogkrong Monthardpalin said.

A picture shared by the navy showed the grey vessel flipped over onto its side, while another image on a scanner screen showed the bow of the ship and a gun turret poking out above the waterline as it went down.

While northern and central Thailand are seeing their coldest temperatures of the year, far southern Thailand has been experiencing storms and flooding in recent days. Ships were warned to stay ashore.

(With Agency inputs)