PHUKET: A cargo vessel is on the rocks off Phuket with a fishing boat and its crew of six now missing, together with six others last seen on a barge being battered by storms.

Marine Police and the Royal Thai Navy were at full stretch today as one life-and-death crisis followed another.

The fishing boat was last heard from about 8.15am when one of the crew - five men and one woman - called Marine Police to say they were taking water 16 miles off Racha island.

While authorities rushed to the rescue and two Navy helicopters were sent up, reports came in of a cargo vessel being washed onto rocks off Hey island, like Racha island, a popular day-trip destination.

''We think the crew of about 10 is still on the cargo vessel,'' Marine Police chief Colonel Phanya Chaichana told Phuketwan today.

The cargo vessel is the Cambodian-registered Sinaran Andaman, which left Phnom Penh for Myanmar (Burma) on June 25 and stopped briefly at Penang in Malaysia on Monday.

The 793-tonne vessel was washed onto rocks at Hey island early today and taking a severe pounding from the monsoon storms that have forced authorities to ban all boats of less than 24 metres in length from venturing to sea.

Similar wicked weather is also lashing the neighboring tourist provinces of Phang Nga and Krabi and threatening to continue through until Monday.

A barge bound from Phuket for a resort on Racha island with construction equipment went missing early yesterday, with the fate of the six on board unknown.

The Royal Thai Navy ship HTMS Chonburi was due in the Racha region today to enhance the search for the barge and its missing crew.

Now the additional concerns are the missing fishing boat and its crew of six and the cargo vessel on the rocks off Phuket with the crew believed to be still on board.