Myanmar migrant workers nabbed for alleged killing two British nationals

SURAT THANI, THAILAND, September 16 (TNA) - Local police have arrested and detained three Myanmar migrant workers suspected of killing two British tourists on Tao Island in Surat Thani Province in the Thai South, as Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha has ordered police investigators to speed up an official probe into the murder. More than 30 police investigators from Koh Pha-ngan Police Station raided a bungalow where the workers stayed, located near the crime scene, on Tuesday morning, and nabbed the three Myanmar suspects, after a tip-off from witnesses saying the three suspects were drinking alcohol near the site about the time the murders took place. The police confiscated four mobile phones from the suspects, including broken iPhones, to be examined whether they belonged to the murdered victims, while the suspects' clothes were also seized for further probes. The police also inspected many other nearby migrant workers' bungalows and then took some others for questioning, along with the suspected trio. A representative from the British Embassy to Thailand, in the meantime, arrived at the scene along with a Thai tourist police commander to inspect the scene and to follow up the case. Local police confirmed the island remains open for international visitors although police have been deployed to oversee public safety and to watch out suspects. The two British tourists' bodies, a man and a woman, identified as 24-year-old David William from Jersey, Channel Islands, and 23-year-old Hannah Victoria from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, were discovered nearly naked and beaten on Koh Tao, a small island popular for international divers off mainland Surat Thani near Pha-ngan Island in the Gulf of Thailand, on early Monday morning. Blood strains, a blood-stained hoe and a used condom were also found near the murder site. Meanwhile, the Thai prime minister has instructed police to speed up their investigation into the case with decisive legal action against the killers consequently, so has Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan, who oversees national security. (TNA)