In Photos: Oil spill blackens beaches on Thai holiday island

By Staff Global News/The Associated Press

Posted July 30, 2013 8:20 am

Updated July 30, 2013 11:33 am

1 min read

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Royal Thai Navy personnel work to clean up from a major oil slick on Ao Phrao beach on the island of Ko Samet on July 30, 2013. Thai navy personnel battled to clean up the major oil slick which coated a beach on the popular tourist island in a national park after a pipeline leak. NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images

Workers in white suits used buckets to scoop up globs of crude oil blackening the once white sands and emerald waters of a tourist island in Thailand’s eastern sea on Tuesday, as the oil slick continued to spread three days after leaking from a nearby pipeline.

Progress was being made on cleaning the oil that washed into Prao Bay on the west coast of Samet Island on Sunday night, though not fast enough, and rough seas and strong winds spread thin films of dispersed oil to a rocky bay farther north, said Rayong deputy governor Supeepat Chongpanish.