Death toll reaches 100,000

The death toll in the tsunami disaster soared past 100,000 today - and is set to climb higher.

A total of 50 Britons are now confirmed dead and at least 100 are unaccounted for after tidal waves swept away resorts in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and around the Indian Ocean.

Officials in every country today warned the final number of dead will be even higher as rescue teams reach remote areas.

The UN said there were now strong grounds to believe that the toll in the Sumatran province of Aceh, the worst affected area, would be as high as 80,000. The number dead has now climbed in every country affected, including:

Aid agencies today warned disease will also cause massive casualties among the survivors as the biggest relief effort in history began.

The British toll climbed as a new alert was sounded over the number missing. Abta, the tours operators' association, said there were 100 Britons unaccounted for. There are no confirmed numbers for missing backpackers.

Today more dramatic accounts emerged as hundreds of Britons flew back to Heathrow from Thailand.

Businessman Neil Tennant, from Woodbridge, Suffolk, told how he and his family had to flee to the roof of their hotel in Khao Lak as a giant wave swamped the building.

He said: "We ran up to the roof from our room just a few seconds before the water swamped it. I have no doubt we would have been killed if we had stayed where we were."

Amy Davies, from Camden, who was staying at Ko Phi Phi in Thailand, arrived home still in her swimming costume. She said: "I saw a drowned child in the water below me."

First Choice said six of its 248 customers in Phuket were still unaccounted after Sunday's tsunami.

An official at the British embassy in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, today said the confirmed British death toll there stood at three.

First Choice had 584 holidaymakers in the Maldives. One died and all the others have been accounted for.

MyTravel said it had between 850 and 900 clients in the affected area. Most had been accounted for.

The vast majority of the 3,500 foreigners still unaccounted for in the disaster region are from Scandinavia. The missing include at least 1,500 Swedes, 800 Norwegians, 214 Danes and 200 Finns.

Families across Britain were today in mourning and hundreds waited helplessly for news of their loved ones. Film director Lord Attenborough was among those grieving after it was confirmed his granddaughter, Lucy, 14, was dead and his daughter, Jane Holland, 49, was missing, feared dead. Jane's mother-in-law, also called Jane Holland, was also missing in Phuket. The family, who live in London, have asked for privacy "at this terrible time".

The south-east Asian communities of London watched in horror as the tsunami destroyed the lives of their relatives. Moulana Mazahir, from Harrow, lost 50 close relatives when a wall of water destroyed his home town of Hambantotain southern Sri Lanka. The 45-year-old chef 's only solace is that his wife and three sons, who had been on holiday in the resort, escaped with their lives after leaving just three hours before disaster struck.

"My life will never be the same. It was a miracle my wife and sons are still alive - but they are terrified."

Mohammed Samsudena and his wife Nirusha, 29, also from Harrow, say they have lost 40 family members and are desperately trying to contact other relatives in Hambantota. The 36-year-old petrol station sales assistant said: "Yesterday morning we heard that the body of my sister-in-law, Fatima, had been found. She was only 18."

Relatives of London newlyweds Christopher and Gaynor Mullen, from Richmond, now fear the worst - last hearing from the couple on Christmas Day, when they simply said they were "on the beach" in Thailand.

Fashion photographer Simon Atlee, 33, from London, most famous for his photograph of Rugby World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson in the Hackett advertisements, was also swept away in the tidal wave as his holiday bungalow in Khao Lak near Phuket was destroyed. His girlfriend, Czech model Petra Nemcova, 25, survived by clinging onto a palm tree.

Louise Willgrass, 43, from Colney, near Norwich, was washed away after she had got out of the rented car her family was travelling in to buy suncream at a Phuket supermarket.

The car, being driven by her husband Nigel and containing their four children, Emily, 16, Ben, 14, Michael, nine and Katie, six was overwhelmed by the tidal wave. Mr Willgrass managed to pull the children free and they survived by clinging to floating debris.

Conservation volunteer Lisa Jones, 31, is feared dead on the tiny Thai island of Koh Phra Thong, where she had been helping research sea turtles.