Salvors raise bow of sunken ferry off Koh Samui

Salvage teams have successfully raised the bow of a passenger vessel that had capsized and sunk in bad weather off the resort island of Koh Samui in Thailand.

The recovery of the wreck of the Ro-Pax ferry Raja 4 is being carried out to allow police investigators to identify the reasons for its capsizing on August 1, which had also resulted in the deaths of three crewmembers and two passengers.

The salvage effort began in late August but had been repeatedly hampered by strong winds. Authorities expect that, due to the weather conditions in the area, the operation to raise the entire vessel and its cargo of trucks and rubbish could last more than a month.

Meanwhile, a number of fishing boat operators have been enlisted to assist in recovering Raja 4's cargo of rubbish, some of which had ended up on beaches near the incident site.

See more stories from this month's Tug and Salvage Week here.