An officer from Phuket City police station said: "We received a report at about 4pm on Saturday that a man had died while swimming in Phang Nga province.

"Volunteers from the Kusoldharm Rescue Foundation went to recover the body."

Mr Saxberg's friends had taken his body to Rassada port.

"We are not yet sure of the cause of death," the officer added.

"He had an operation on his heart seven years ago but we are uncertain if that is connected to the incident. Another possible cause is an attack of cramp while swimming," he said, adding that a post-mortem would be carried out at Vachira Phuket Hospital.

Mr Saxberg worked at CBC for 27 years and in 1989 he became an anchorman on the channel's rolling-news service Newsworld.

Recently he worked for the Japanese broadcasting corporation NHK, where he received an Edward Murrow broadcast journalism award for his documentary Hiroshima: 60 Years Later, which he both wrote and presented.