165,000 now feared dead

The death toll in the tsunami disaster rose dramatically again today, with 165,000 now thought to have died.

Official figures have confirmed 92,000 dead across 12 countries but many of the most remote and severely affected areas have not yet been reached.

Thousands have been buried in mass graves without being identified in an attempt to head off disease.

In the Indonesian town of Meulaboh, 65 miles east of the epicentre of the earthquake which caused the tsunami, 40,000 of the 120,000 residents are feared dead.

The town is still cut off from the provincial capital, Banda Aceh and supplies, including 5,000 body bags, can only be flown in by helicopter.

The official British death toll rose to 27 today but the true figure is likely to be more than 100 with Thailand alone reporting 42 deaths.

Among the latest victims to be named is Julian Ayer, the adopted son of a prominent philosopher, who died when the bus he and his wife were travelling in was swept away in Sri Lanka. Mr Ayer had helped Harriet Crawley, his wife of three years, escape from the vehicle.

Mrs Crawley, 56, of west London, whose 17-year-old son Spencer was playing cricket in the nearby resort of Galle with a team from Harrow School, managed to flee to safety, but her husband was washed away. Her son was unharmed.

Mr Ayer's adoptive father was Freddie Ayer, a professor at the universities of London and Oxford, who died in 1989.

Julian Ayer's death is the latest in a series of family tragedies. Mrs Crawley's two brothers, Randall and Andrew, were killed in 1988 when their private plane hit a mountain near Turin on their way to her 40th birthday party in London. Both their widows were seven months pregnant.

Later she said: "After the boys' accident - I can't bear to say after they died - Spencer would wander round the house calling, 'Come back, come back, Mummy's so sad'. They were princely personalities, so full of ideas and life."

Her mother, the American historian Virginia Cowles, died in a car crash in 1983 and her father Aidan Crawley, a former Tory MP and chairman of LWT, died in 1993 virtually-bankrupt after investing in Lloyd's of London.

Another British victim of the disaster, Jackie Weston, told how she saw her husband swept to his death in the Maldives. Businessman Peter Weston, 47, was standing with his wife and the couple's two young daughters outside their hotel when the wave hit. The force of the water swept the family off their feet and Mr Weston became separated from his family. Mrs Weston, 45, of Owslebury, near Winchester, said: "The first we were aware of the wave was children screaming. We turned around and saw the water coming at us. I didn't see a wall of water, just a big surge.

"In the chaos Pete got separated from us. We are all absolutely devastated. He was a fantastic father and husband."

Mrs Weston and her children Katie, 11, and Victoria, 14, have now returned home.

Among others affected are Louis Barratt-Mullan, 16, and his 12-yearold brother Theo. The boys have not seen their parents, Catherine Mullan and Leonard Barratt, since they were struck by the wave in Phuket.

After being treated for minor injuries the boys left a note for their parents at the local hospital but hopes of finding them have now faded.

Today their grandmother Helen Mullan, 84, of Nottingham, said: "Louis said he and his brother were tumbled about by this incredible wave. Theo didn't want to speak. He seems to be quite disturbed. We hope against hope that their mum and dad may be found." The boys are waiting for the arrival of their mother's sister, Joy, who hopes to be able to trace their parents as well as arrange for the brothers to return to Britain to stay with their grandmother.

Mr Barratt, 49, a social worker and carpenter and Ms Mullan, 53, who works for the Cornwall Enterprise Board, lived with the boys in a converted barn in Cornwall.