Six foreign tourists, two Thais drown in cave

BANGKOK, Oct 14 (Reuters) Eight people, including four Swiss, a Briton and a 10-year-old German boy, drowned when a flash flood trapped them in a cave in southern Thailand, but a British woman survived, officials said today.

A Thai tourist guide and a boatman also drowned in the 500 metre (1,640 ft) deep Nam Talu cave in the Khao Sok national park, they said.

Police earlier said four of the tourists were Swedes.

The officials said that a 17-year-old British woman was found alive after a long search that began yesterday night, park official Thirayudh Mungpaisal told Reuters.

''We found her in the cave, at the top part of the cave. We guess that the water pushed her up there and she couldn't get down,'' Thirayudh said.

The woman was slightly injured and recovering in hospital, he said, declining to give names.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Pichan Kalayasiri, speaking by telephone from Surat Thani province, where the forested park draws trekkers and bird watchers, confirmed the dead included four Swiss tourists.

The cave on the Rachaprpa reservoir is home to bats.

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