One man's search for a loved one

A frantic search was under way today for hundreds of Britons reported missing following the disaster in southeast Asia. A Foreign Office call centre staffed by police has been inundated with calls from desperate relatives who have failed to contact loved ones overseas.

While the Foreign Office said the official British death toll stood at 27, a source added: "We know hundreds are missing, and our embassy staff are working frantically to find out what's happened to them." Many of those reported missing are backpackers thought to have been in Thailand or India over Christmas, but were probably a long way from the scene of the devastation.

Nevertheless, officials are logging all reports of missing people and circulating details in an attempt to clarify the situation. A Whitehall spokesman said: "Call centre staff are under a lot of stress. There's a lot of calls."

Relatives from Britain and around the world have been pouring into Thailand and neighbouring countries looking for loved ones. And two teams of specially trained police officers arrived in the disaster zone from Britain today to help identify victims of the tsunami.

The two groups - each of around half a dozen officers, mostly from the Metropolitan Police - flew into Sri Lanka and Thailand to work with local British consulates. They include crime-scene experts with forensic identification skills and family liaison officers skilled in dealing with bereaved next of kin.

The desperation of the searchers is summed up by our picture of a British man hunting among the dead for a lost relative. A mask over his mouth and nose to stem the stench, Eoin Quinn wades through hundreds of corpses at a temple in Ban Muan, 80 miles north of the Thai resort of Phuket.

Like tens of thousands of others, Mr Quinn has little alternative to his grim task: in his case, looking for sister-in-law Rachel Quinn, 34. She was holidaying with her husband, Kevin, in a hotel in Khao Lak when the tsunami devastated the resort. Kevin survived is now safe in hospital - but there has been no contact from Rachel.

One of those joining the search from Britain is Dale Hurren, 46, from Norfolk, hoping to find his son James Hurren, 22, who had given up his job as an assistant bank manager to go backpacking. He was last seen with friends on Phuket. "I am a born optimist and I cannot give up hope that he might turn up alive," Mr Hurren said.

City broker Lincoln Abraham is missing on Phi Phi island. The 34-year-old from Hampstead was on holiday with friends who survived. Also missing is 23-year-old Leanne Cox, a gap-year backpacker from Hartlepool. Her father, Alan, said she was last seen running away from the wall of water as it ploughed through Phi Phi.