British woman missing after scuba diving tour boat capsizes off coast of Thailand

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Fears are growing for a British woman still missing three days after a scuba diving boat sank off the coast of Thailand.

Millie Young, a 57-year-old artist from Brighton, was reportedly among 18 passengers aboard the Reggae Queen tour boat when it sank in stormy waters near the island of Ko Torinla, in the Andaman Sea, on Saturday morning.

While 16 of the passengers were rescued, Ms Young and a female Thai crew member are yet to be found, amid an intensive search involving the Royal Thai Navy.

Officials believe the pair may have been swept up to 70 miles away from the boat by strong currents. A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman and are in contact with the local authorities after an incident in Thailand.”

Ko Torinla is one of the Surin Islands, an archipelago some 35 miles from the mainland and considered one of the world’s best snorkelling and diving spots.

The search was continuing on Boxing Day, having involved the coastguard, helicopters and inflatable boats, in an operation made harder by stormy conditions, according to local media.

On Tuesday, Rear Admiral Pongmit Narongkul was reported as saying that an inflatable life raft had been found 20 nautical miles from where the ship sank, but it was empty.

“The flight path search area has been expanded to the western area of the Surin Islands, with a radius of 15 nautical miles from the forecast point. The missing people have not been found but the search is continuing,” he said.

“Cargo and fishing vessels are helping with the search,” he added.

Officials are considering using sonar capable of scouring the sea floor to search for the Reggae Queen.

Ms Young appears to have been living in Thailand since 2007, according to her social media, on which friends said they were “wishing for a miracle of Christmas” while awaiting news.