A tourist was found dead today after the whale watching boat he was traveling on was capsized by a freak tornado in Thailand on Saturday evening.

Rescue teams retrieved the body of Chanin Chompinthong, 25, from the river in Phetchaburi province this morning as they continued searching for one more missing person who was tossed into the water from the freak twister.

Mobile phone footage captured the moment the ferry with one captain and seven tourists - four women and three men - onboard was returning from the estuary when the twister zipped towards them shortly before sunset on August 12.

The captain desperately tried to steer away from the vortex as it sucked up water and debris having already damaged nearby homes.

However, the full force of the wind smashed into the wooden motorboat - dramatically flipping it over in front of shocked onlookers. Passengers scrambled to find the shore and six were pulled alive from the river.

Officials said that by 9:30pm local time and by then in darkness, two people were still missing.

The missing holidaymaker from Bangkok was found on Sunday morning, August 13. Teams are still searching for the second missing person, Kritsanut Khampanya, 27, along the Phetchaburi River in the Bang Tabun district of the region, around 70 miles from the capital Bangkok.

Captain Samphan Chinpueng, 63, told rescue teams the boat was returning from its whale watching trip and was around 1.5 miles from the resort where the group of tourists were staying when the tornado struck.

He said: 'A huge storm suddenly appeared and hit the boat, causing it to turn over. The passengers were not wearing life jackets. I helped some of the group get to the shore, but the two men were not able to get back and they were too far away for me to reach.'

The Phetchaburi Provincial Incident and Command Center said they received an emergency report about an elephant trunk shaped waterspout tornado hitting a boat.

They said there were six passengers onboard and one captain. The six injured were taken to hospital and are now recovering.

A spokesman said: 'The boat was taking tourists out to see Bryde whales in the estuary near the sea when it was hit by the tornado. There were injuries with two missing people. Staff rushed to the area to check, along with rescue teams and paramedics.

'One of the missing people was found this morning and our condolences go to his family.

'The body has now been sent to the hospital for a post mortem examination to find the cause of his death.'

Waterspout tornados are relatively common in tropical climates but it is incredibly rare for them to cause signifiant damage, let alone injure or kill people.

The weather phenomenons are caused when wind merges from opposite directions near the water's surface, creating a small area of spin. Warm air at the surface causes the spinning air to rotate faster and it starts to rise – picking up water at the same time and forming the distinctive elephant-funnel shape.

As warm air rises, the cooler air moves in below and then rises, too. Sometimes the air spins so fast that it stretches and a funnel appears from the water to the thunderstorm cloud above.