A TOTAL of 23 Chinese tourists were injured and two South Koreans were missing after a speedboat and a fishing boat collided off Phuket Island in Thailand on Sunday, China’s consular office in Phuket said yesterday.

    The tourist speedboat was carrying 34 people and three crew members from Phi Phi Island when it hit the fishing vessel, local police Col. Phumin Poompanmoung said.

    Marine police were able to rescue 27 of those aboard the tourist boat and villagers on boats retrieved eight others, but a man and a woman from South Korea were still missing.

    Authorities said some of the tourists, who were mostly Chinese but included four Koreans and two Britons, suffered broken bones and internal injuries. Police were holding the speedboat’s crew and the fishing boat’s captain for questioning.

    It was the second fatal boat accident this months. Two Indian tourists drowned Oct. 5 after the boat they were in capsized in bad weather, also along Thailand’s southern Andaman Sea coast.

    The boat’s operator was charged with reckless operation of a vehicle.

    (SD-Xinhua)