BANGKOK, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- A luxury cruise ship, carrying 150 passengers and crewmembers, hit rocks in the sea off southern Thailand during the wee hours of Monday but finally sailed safely to shore, a navy officer said.
The French-owned cruise liner, named La Belle Des Oceans, hit the underwater rocks in the Andaman Sea about three nautical miles east of Phi Phi islands off Krabi province at about 03:00 a.m., according to the navy officer attached to the Third Navy Area Command.
The crew quickly bailed out the water which flowed into the ship's bow section through a hole caused by the crash.
A navy patrol boat, named HTMS Sriracha, approached and tried to help but the crewmembers managed to steer the cruise liner from the scene and sailed on to Phuket.
The luxury boat was carrying 60 Philippine and 20 Croatian tourists, plus 70 crewmembers who were all unharmed by the rare incident.
