BANGKOK—A Thai government minister on July 9 blamed Chinese tour operators for the deaths of more than 40 people, most of them Chinese tourists, in a boat accident off a resort island last weekend, as divers searched for 11 people still missing.
The boat, the Phoenix, went down in high seas on July 5 off the west-coast island of Phuket with 101 people on board, including 89 tourists, all but two of them from China, and 12 crew, during an outing to a small island for snorkeling.
