Limitations and obstacles

  1. Most of the victims were wearing only swim suits at the time of the incident and consequently there is very limited evidence with which to identify the bodies.
  2. Most of the victims were drowned and it took 4-5 days to recover the bodies. The heat and high humidity of the tropical climate contributed to the fast decomposition of the bodies further hindering the collection of evidence.

The Royal Thai Police are working to the Interpol standard with the cooperation and assistance of Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Teams from 15 countries and forensic specialists until all the bodies have been identified. In order to assist with identification, relatives of the victims are requested to provide further information such as; dental records, fingerprints, DNA or any other means of identification.