Searchers found the body of another crew member from the sunken warship HTMS Sukhothai on an island shoreline in Chumphon province on Wednesday as they combed a series of islets for the missing sailors.
V/Adm Pichai Lorchusakul, commander of the 1st Region of the Royal Thai Navy, told reporters the body was found by searchers patrolling Koh Samet off Muang district in Chumphon province.
The body was on a Fisheries Department speedboat, being taken to the search centre in Bang Saphan district in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, where it would be autopsied and identified.
"His clothing indicated he was a crew member on the ship," V/Adm Pichai said.
V/Adm Pichai said searchers were combing all islands, most of them small ones, in the neighbourhood, including Sak, Maphraw, Sawa and Ka islands.
The islands are located off the mouth of the Chumphon River in Muang district of the southern province.
"Searchers will thoroughly check all islands in the area," he said.
More than 50 teams of navy personnel, rescue volunteers, officials from other agencies and local residents have been patrolling beaches on the mainland and islands from Prachuap Khiri Khan to Chumphon and Surat Thani provinces for missing crew from the corvette, which went down in a storm in the Gulf off Bang Saphan, Prachap Khiri Khan, on Dec 18. (continues below)
Two dead sailors were found in Chumphon waters on Tuesday. Seven were still missing, including seaman Abdulaziz Ma-ae, who made a distress call to his father from the sinking warship as it went down. Seaman Abdulaziz is a soldier in the navy's Air and Coastal Defence Command.
There were 105 sailors, marines and other personnel on board the warship when it sank. Twenty-two have been found dead and 76 rescued alive.
