THAILAND: SWEDISH TOURISTS LEAVING ISLAND OF PHUKET RECOUNT THEIR LUCKY ESCAPE FROM THE TSUNAMI THAT CLAIMED THOUSANDS OF LIVES
Record ID:
648019
THAILAND: SWEDISH TOURISTS LEAVING ISLAND OF PHUKET RECOUNT THEIR LUCKY ESCAPE FROM THE TSUNAMI THAT CLAIMED THOUSANDS OF LIVES
- Title: THAILAND: SWEDISH TOURISTS LEAVING ISLAND OF PHUKET RECOUNT THEIR LUCKY ESCAPE FROM THE TSUNAMI THAT CLAIMED THOUSANDS OF LIVES
- Date: 29th December 2004
- Summary: (W5) PHUKET, THAILAND (DECEMBER 29, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. HAS: INTERIOR OF PHUKET INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 0.07 2. SCU: INTERNATIONAL DEPARTURES SIGN 0.14 3. TOURISTS CHECKING LUGGAGE THROUGH SECURITY MACHINE 0.20 4. LUGGAGE ON SECURITY BELT 0.29 5. VARIOUS OF TOURISTS CHECKING IN (2 SHOTS) 0.37 6. TOURISTS QUEUING (2 SHOITS) 0.49 7. TWO SWEDISH TOURISTS, JONAS ALEDAL AND JENNY ASP, WITH LUGGAGE AT AIRPORT 0.53 8. (SOUDBITE) (English) 29-YEARS-OLD SWEDISH TOURIST JONAS ALEDAL SAYING: "We are backpackers so we take us here on our own. We called our travel agent but no good response so we taken a cab, a taxi to the airport and talk with travel agent and maybe they help us, we don't know yet. Waiting and see what happens, maybe it takes one hour maybe one day, we don't know nothing. Around 7 o'clock the people will tell us but it's a lot of people were hurt, we were very lucky." 1.29 9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) 28-YEAR-OLD SWEDISH TOURIST JENNY ASP, SAYING: "A lot of Swedish people went to Khao Lak and we planned to go to Khao Lak these days but we oversleep so we missed the boat to Khao Lak and that was lucky that we missed the boat." 1.47 10. KURD NIELSEN, DANISH TOURIST IN CHECK IN QUEUE 1.54 11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) KURD NIELSEN, DANISH TOURIST, SAYING: "I can't understand why people are trying to get out. I can understand the people who have lost someone or been injured or so but otherwise no, no danger down there." 2.05 12. CHRISTMAS TREE 2.10 13. TOURISTS WITH BAGS 2.15 14. TOURIST WITH HIS BAGS 2.20 15. INTERNET OFFICE AT THE AIRPORT 2.25 16. TOURIST SENDING INTERNET MESSAGE 2.32 17. VARIOUS OF TRAVEL AGENT AT THE AIRPORT (3 SHOTS) 2.52 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PHUKET, THAILAND
- Country: Thailand
- Reuters ID: LVAA54C9UEMVSH9LNNW1I9A7VJU6
- Story Text: Swedish tourists leaving the Thai island of Phuket
say they had a lucky escape from the tsunami that claimed
thousands of lives.
The Swedish government said on Wednesday (December
29, 2004) it feared that many of the 1,500 Swedish tourists in
Thailand who are still unaccounted for after giant tidal
waves struck Asian coastlines may be dead.
The government had originally claimed that Swedes were
out of danger. If their revision is correct, Sweden would
have the highest number of foreign casualties in Phuket.
Many of them were backpackers on Kho Phi Phi whilst
others were staying in Khao Lak .
Jonas Aledal and his girlfriend Jenny Asp said they
were confused as to what to do and that they had got no
help from their travel agents.
But they were blessed by extraordinary good luck, as
Jenny explained.
"We are backpackers so we take us here on our own. We
called our travel agent but no good response so we taken a
cab, a taxi to the airport and talk with travel agent and
maybe they help us, we don't know yet. Waiting and see what
happens, maybe it takes one hour maybe one day, we don't
know nothing. Around 7 o'clock the people will tell us but
it's a lot of people were hurt, we were very lucky," Jonas
said.
"A lot of Swedish people went to Khao Lak and we
planned to go to Khao Lak these days but we oversleep so we missed
the boat to Khao Lak and that was lucky that we
missed the boat," said Jenny.
A Danish tourist said he had been relatively unaffected
by the tsunami and that he did not understand why everyone
was so keen to leave the country.
"I can't understand why people are trying to get out. I
can understand the people who have lost someone or been
injured or so but otherwise no, no danger down there," Kurd
Nielsen, Danish tourist, said.
Swedes were the worse affected by the quake however.
The government's figures of unaccounted-for tourists is
slightly below an earlier 1,600 estimate put forward by
tourism officials. Neither estimate includes people who
organised their own holiday in Thailand without the help of
a travel agency.
When the waves struck, some 20,000 to 30,000 Swedes
were believed to be holidaying in the disaster areas, of
whom up to 10,000 could have been travelling independently,
officials said.
Of Sweden's big three tour operators, Fritidsresor said
it still has no news from 600 Swedish travellers in the
Phuket and Khao Lak areas.
Another operator, Mytravel, said it did not have any
contact with around 500 Swedes in Thailand.
The Apollo agency said it was also still trying to
reach 500 of the Swedish holidaymakers it had flown into
Thailand for Christmas, but spokesman Mats Dahlqvist said
there were "enormous communications problems" with neither
fax or data lines working properly. Some media reports,
quoting sources in Thailand, said up to 200 Swedes could be
dead in the country.
The Swedish foreign ministry has come under criticism
since Sunday for being unable to field the thousands of
telephone calls coming in from holidaymakers' families and
for having insufficient resources on the ground in Thailand
to help Swedes in trouble.
Papers also picked up on a foreign ministry statement
on Sunday which said, falsely as it turned out, that "all
Swedes in the disaster-hit areas in Thailand, southern
India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are out of danger".
Expressen said the statement was made in "reckless
ignorance" and showed "unforgivable cruelty" to the
families of Swedish holidaymakers.
Sweden has now stepped up air transport between
Thailand and Sweden, and the foreign minister is
accompanying a rescue team to Thailand on Tuesday to take
stock of the situation herself.
Half of those planes had been booked with tour
operators, and the government would ensure the remainder,
with the aim of flying 20,000 Swedes home by January 4.
Sweden has also dispatched a crisis management team to
Phuket to help the Swedish embassy, which had set up a
temporary bureau in Phuket to help Swedes in distress.
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