Six Britons feared dead as speedboat capsizes off Thailand

In total, 25 people were reported missing and eight confirmed dead.

The British fatality was named as Marc Elder-Bradley, 38, from London. The missing included eight Thais, four Swedes, two Americans, one German, one Canadian and one Estonian. The boat was heading to the Thai island of Koh Samui after an all-night beach party on Pa Ngan island when it flipped over.

The British embassy in Bangkok confirmed a UK citizen was among the dead. Two Israelis, a Frenchman and an American were also believed to have died, although other embassies declined to comment.

Police said three Thais were killed in the accident, which may have been caused by overcrowding on the 40-seat open-air motor boat, which was carrying up to 54 tourists.

"The speedboat was taking tourists back from the over-night full-moon party on Pa Ngan back to Samui and sank at dawn," Colonel Bundid Tungkaseranee said.

Late yesterday Thai police and army frogmen continued to scour the waters around the northern shore of Koh Samui for missing persons.

One survivor, Lee Feldman, 22, from Portland, Oregon, said: "The boat was hopelessly overloaded.

"It was built for maybe 30 people but there must have been at least 50 or 60. We were mostly huddled together in a cabin.

"It was travelling at speed, then the driver made a sharp left turn and we flipped.

"As it started going down we were trapped inside. We could not get out because of the canopy.

"Nobody was wearing life-jackets. I did not see any, anyway. But I guess they would not have helped.

"We were dragged down by the boat. People were urging, ‘Stay calm. Get out slowly’. But there was pandemonium as people realised they were drowning," Mr Feldman said.

"I kept swimming down hoping the boat was not coming down on top of me. Then I made it to the surface.

"The boat was still out of the water and I grabbed on to it. I could feel people grabbing at my legs. People were still trapped inside.

"I was too exhausted to dive down and help. One Thai man did dive down, but he never came back. There was an American girl next to me. I don’t think she got out."

A Thai survivor, Inthat Haechoo, 28, confirmed that the boat had been overloaded and said that he had had to stand for the half-hour trip.

"No-one was offered a life-vest either," he said.

Thailand’s interior minister, Bhokin Bhalakula, promised an inquiry.

The accident happened just a month after thousands of foreign tourists died in the Indian Ocean tsunami along the country’s western shoreline and came as Thailand tried to lure tourists back to its shores.