Clean-up crews tackle oil spill on Thailand coast

The governor of a province in eastern Thailand on Saturday declared a state of emergency to assist in the efforts to clean up a beach hit by an oil slick.

Some 20-50 tons of oil is estimated to have leaked Tuesday night in the Gulf of Thailand from an undersea hose at an offshore mooring point of the Star Petroleum Refining Co. used to load tankers.

]The leak was stopped within hours, the company said, but efforts to keep an oil slick from reaching the Mae Ramphueng beach in Rayong province were unsuccessful, and some oil began spilling onto the sand there on Saturday morning.

A major part of the slick remains at sea and there are concerns it may hit Koh Samet, an island popular with foreign and domestic tourists.

Rayong Governor ordered the Mae Ramphueng beach area to be shut to people without a reason for being there and requested that shops and restaurants there shut down until the situation returns to normal.