In an interview with Xinhua, a security guard of the hotel asked the reporter to take a photo for him in front of the security quarters where he has been working for years as he is leaving the place and do not know when he could return. And broken beds, chairs, tables and soaked mattresses were scattered around the yard of the once beautiful hotel.

    Thailand's death toll in Sunday's tsunami has increased to 1,500 with more and more corpses found by rescue teams, the state-run Thai News Agency reported on Tuesday night.

    "A brief government announcement at 16:00 this afternoon put the number of dead at 1,516, with 8,432 more people injured," said the report.

    The number is expected to further rise with search-and-rescue operations still going on in the kingdom's six southwestern provinces.

    Rescue workers said there were still some 1,000 bodies in the worst-hit Phnagnga Province that they were not able to reach.

    Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters earlier that he expected the death toll to exceed 2,000.

    According to reports reaching here Tuesday from Thailand's tsunami-stricken tourist resort of Phuket island, most Chinese visitors there have returned home.

    The famous island had been badly hit with at least a dozen hotels on the Patong beachfront and countless shops and stores severely damaged. Telecommunications in Phuket was still partly paralyzed Tuesday with most mobile phone calls failing to dial out.