***BANGKOK, Dec 11: Rescuers battled through the night to find survivors of today's Thai Airways airbus crash in southern Thailand after more than 44 people were pulled out alive. An interior ministry civil defence division official said there were at least 29 people confirmed dead and 44 survivors, police at the scene said they had seen at least 20 more bodies inside the debris of the cabin, reports AFP.***

BANGKOK. Dec 11: A Thai airliner with 146 persons aboard crashed near an airport in heavy rain tonight near Surat Thant in southern Thailand. police said, reports AP.

There was no official confirmation on how many people were killed and how many survived. or in what condition. The television station ITV said the survivors included the pilot, but this could not be independently confirmed.

Thai television footage from the crash site, three to five kilometres (two to three miles) from the Surat Thani airport, showed at least eight survivors, all conscious. There were television reports of as many as 50 survivors, but this could not be confirmed.

One of those shown in footage was a boy. aged about 10. who had wounds on his forehead. He and other shaken and injured survivors were helped in to vehicles and away from the crash scene. Thai television reported that at least

20 injured passengers were taken to hospital.

Rain was heavy in Surat Thani and rescuers were having difficulty sending ambulances to the crash site, a swampy area.

The airline released a passenger manifest which indicated that most of the 132 passengers were Thais, but there were also several Western and Japanese names. The manifest did not list the nationalities of the passengers. They would not

have been required to show their passports when checking

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Transport and Communications Minister Suthep Thaug-suban. speaking to reporters at Bangkok Airport, said his sister Siriwan had been on the flight. He also had originally been scheduled to fly it until he cancelled to attend a wedding elsewhere.

Suthep, who said he did not know the fate of his sister, expressed dismay that he learned about the crash first from his relatives in Surat Thani, rather than from the airline, which is mostly owned by the government and which he supervises.

An airline spokesman said the plane was an Airbus A310-200 with 245 seats, though another spokesman said it was a different model Airbus.

Thai Airways Elight TG261 had been on its way to Surat Thani from Bangkok, a distance of 503 kilometres (330 miles), when it crashed in Boon Pin district at 6:45 pm (1145 GMT), Surat Thani police said.