At 6.45pm the Thai Royal Navy sent six rescuers on a speed boat after receiving a call to rescue the Lonan tour boat which had broken down. On board were the nine French tourists, four men, four women and a child.
All nine were succesfully rescued one-by-one using a lifebuoy to pull them from the stranded boat to the speedboat.
Prior to Navy being sent, another boat had attempted to rescue the passengers but had failed due to severe wind and high waves.