Update | Thai police hunt British man after backpackers murdered with hoe and left naked on beach

Thai police have launched a manhunt for a British tourist after the naked bodies of two backpackers were found on the popular resort island of Koh Tao on Monday. Police named the victims as Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and David Miller, 24, from Jersey, in the Channel Islands. They were found stripped with several wounds to their bodies close to a beachside bungalow on the island, a diving hot spot near Koh Phangan, in the Gulf of Thailand. Police Colonel Prachum Ruangthong said that the pair were found dead on a rocky beach on Koh Tao in Surat Thani province. The victims’ clothes and a hoe with blood stains were found nearby, he said. Police suspect the two were killed with the hoe. The man was chopped in the back and on the side of his head, while the woman was chopped in her face, Prachum said, describing the scene as “very gruesome”. Police suspect that Witheridge woman was also raped, according to a report in the Bangkok Post newspaper. “They were murdered and found naked on the beach. Police were informed at 6.30am,” police official Jakkrapan Kaewkhao added. “Their bodies were found 30 metres from [the] bungalow.” The bodies of the victims are due to arrive in Bangkok later on Tuesday for forensic tests, Jakkrapan said. According to reports in the British press, police said they wanted to speak to one of the travelling companions of the male victim, who is believed to have left the island for the mainland on the first available ferry after the murders took place. “We need to talk to this man as a matter of urgency,” a spokesman for the Thai police was quoted by Britain’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper. Police added that they believe the Briton is heading for Bangkok. Another of the male victim’s friends was released after being questioned by police when he provided a “satisfactory explanation” for injuries to his hands, the Telegraph reported. “We wish to interview [the victim’s] friend, but we cannot give out his details at this stage. His name has been circulated. They all arrived together on August 25. We need to talk to him as a matter of urgency,” Police Colonel Songsak, who was brought in from the neighbouring island of Koh Phangan, said. Colonel Songsak added that the female victim arrived on Koh Tao on September 12 with three friends and had met the other group three days ago. Surat Thani provincial police chief Major General Kiattipong Khawsamang said the victims met while staying at the same hotel. “They went out to a bar and left together after 1am, according to closed circuit TV camera footage,” he was quoted as saying by the Bangkok Post. Other reports on Tuesday said that police had identified three people that they wanted to speak to in connection with the murders. “There are three possible suspects,” southern regional police commander Panya Maman said, without confirming their nationalities. “We have set up a coordination centre which is responsible for the investigation and mobilised both Koh Tao and Koh Phangan residents to help police.” Local media had earlier reported that outraged residents of the island, which is home to about 2,000 people and survives on tourism, had blockaded its piers to help police prevent the killers from escaping. An employee at the budget seaside resort where the victims were staying said the bodies were found behind a set of large rocks on the beach. “It was the first time this has happened on the island, I have never seen anything like this,” the staff member added, requesting anonymity. Koh Tao is popular with tourists but draws fewer travellers than the neighbouring Koh Phangnan, home to the hedonistic full moon party. Thailand’s lucrative tourism industry has been battered in recent months after a prolonged political crisis ended a coup which saw the army blanket the country with a curfew and strict martial law. Although the curfew was swiftly lifted from key tourist hot-spots, visitor numbers have yet to rebound. Thailand’s military leaders have vowed to clean up the kingdom’s tourist resorts after complaints of scams, assaults and even police extortion. Britain says Thailand is the country where its citizens are second most likely to require consular assistance if they visit, behind the Philippines. There were 389 deaths of British nationals in Thailand in the year to March 2013 – about one for every 2,400 British visitors or residents – although that figure includes natural causes. But it is rare for tourists to be murdered in Thailand, although it is not uncommon for a visitor to die in an accident. In July last year a 51-year-old American tourist was stabbed to death after an apparent row in a bar in Krabi, another popular tourist haven. His death came just weeks after another American was slashed to death by a taxi driver in Bangkok after an apparent argument over the fare. Agence France-Presse, Associated Press

Update | Thai police hunt British man after backpackers murdered with hoe and left naked on beach

Murder hunt after naked bodies of Britons found with chop wounds to the head and face