A Chinese tourist was killed in a horror jet ski crash in Thailand.

Liu Hongchao, 32, and Lyu Zhifeng, 28, were riding the rented machines when they smashed into each other off the bustling holiday island of Phuket on January 14 afternoon.

Lifeguards swam toward the crash site around one kilometre off Patong Beach to rescue Liu, who was taken back to the shore with critical injuries. He was rushed to the Patong Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police later arrived and took his friend Lyu to the Patong Police Station for questioning.

A police spokesman said: 'Investigations revealed that at around 1:45 pm, three Chinese tourists - two men and a woman - had rented three jet skis at Dolphin Park. They rode around in front of Patong Beach and the collision occurred around a kilometre away.'

Jet ski rental employee Boy said he was looking for the Chinese tourists when he learned that two of them crashed in the water.

He said: 'I was about to call them back because they had already exceeded the allotted rental time. So I drove a jet ski myself but found the wreckage of the crash at sea.'

Authorities said both jet skis were legally registered but the license on one of them had expired on January 10. The jet ski rental operator will be fined 10,000 baht for violations, the Phuket Regional Harbor Office said.

Nachapong Pranit, director of the Phuket Regional Harbor Office, said: 'The Phuket Regional Harbor Office has contacted Bangkok Insurance to pay 100,000 baht in compensation to the deceased.

'We will investigate the facts and take action accordingly. The results of the investigation will be reported at a later time.'

Patong Beach is a zone with 170 jet skis for rent according to regulations set by the Phuket Provincial Committee. Officials had last month conducted a crackdown on illegal jet skis in the area.

The horror crash occurred just a few weeks before the Chinese New Year, when an influx of Chinese tourists is expected to flock to Thailand for the holiday.

It is the second maritime incident involving Chinese tourists in Phuket this week.

On January 13, dozens of Chinese tourists were rescued from a capsized boat off Racha island.

The 33 holidaymakers were sailing on the 39-ft catamaran, the Ameray 888, when they were battered by large waves.

The Tourist Police co-ordinated with the Marine Department and local volunteers to dispatch rescue boats to the scene. Rescue teams then arrived and took the tourists back to the shore.

While on December 17, Russian tourist Kirill Golovachev, 58, was reportedly hit by a jet ski while swimming near Karon Beach in Phuket.

The Austrian driver David Robert Herbst, 25, fled the scene and was arrested by police at a resort in neighbouring Krabi province on December 19.