All Thai border checkpoints, especially those neighbouring Myanmar, are being monitored for the suspects, who have been identified only by their first names, Tuay and Auay. The men are believed to have killed the woman during a robbery, a source at Surat Thani’s Bor Phud police station said.

The woman, which had a stab wound in her abdomen, was buried under a metre of sand on popular Lamai Beach after tourists complained to officials about a foul odour.

Surat Thani authorities believe the woman had been dead for three days. The body was found with a pair of sandals, a coin purse and a small cloth bag for carrying gold ornaments.

Beach vendors said the woman, known by the nickname Rucie, had been on the island for 10 years, living on whatever money she could beg from tourists.

A woman who owns a massage parlour, identifying herself only as Eed, said the deceased woman would visit her every day, but she hadn’t seen her for three days.

Eed said Rucie told her she was now living with Myanmar friends. She said Rucie had owned a gold necklace, which had disappeared.

Pol Colonel Chanaworasin Supanarak, head of Bor Phud police station, said surveillance cameras around the beach would be checked to try to determine what had happened to the woman.