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Thai police seal tourist island after killings

Bangkok - Police have closed off a Thai island resort as a manhunt begins for the killer of two British tourists, police said on Tuesday.

The bodies of the two tourists were found on the beach on Monday at the island resort of Koh Tao, some 350km south of Bangkok.

The pair, both 24, had suffered extensive injuries to the head and neck.

"We have now closed down the island and have started extensive investigations," superintendent of local police, Colonel Prachoom Reungthong, told dpa on Tuesday.

"We found a few potential suspects but we cannot make any more remarks."

Witnesses were quoted as saying they saw the two tourists drinking and dancing with partygoers the previous night before leaving together.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters outside parliament that he understood the case was negatively affecting tourism and that he had ordered police to find the culprit as quickly as possible.

In the past five years 13 British tourists have been murdered in Thailand. In the same time period more than 4 million British tourists visited the country.

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