Two British tourists killed after boat is smashed by tropical storm off coast of Vietnam

Andrew Drummond - 

Two British tourists drowned after their vessel, packed with foreign holidaymakers, was sunk off Vietnam by a tropical storm.

Britons Tim Roney, 21, and Karen Puddifoot, 27, were on a round-the-world journey to raise money for the British Lung Foundation when their uninsured boat sank in the storm.

A French man and two Vietnamese are also among the dead, while many other passengers have been treated in hospital for shock and hypothermia.

Friends Tim and Karen were among 25 passengers on the tourist cruiser on Halong Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said today: 'The relatives of the two young people have been notified. We understand they were just friends.

'Our consular officials from Hanoi are providing consular assistance. Arrangements are being made through an insurance company to fly their bodies home.'

British Embassy officials have travelled to the picturesque Halong Bay, some 100 miles east of the capital, Hanoi, to help officials confirm the identify of the two UK travellers.

An inquiry was launched today into how the five passengers died.

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