Ten names still on tsunami list are likely to be safe

Ten people are still on a list of New Zealanders unaccounted for after the Asian tsunami but no fears are held for their safety.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to cross the people off a list of Kiwis reported to be in areas affected by the Boxing Day disaster.

"The information about them was too general to be pinpoint [locations]," said a spokesman.

Their names would not be released, he said.

Three New Zealanders have been confirmed dead and a further two are missing, presumed dead.

The bodies of Leone Cosens, 51, Craig Baxter, 37, and Belinda Welch, 26, have been formally identified.

Mrs Welch's husband, Andrew, 42, and Christchurch man Stephen Bond, 46, have not been found.

Also confirmed dead was 74-year-old June Kander, a New Zealand-born Canadian.

A new delegation of New Zealand police officers left for Thailand at the weekend to continue work on identifying victims. The 12 officers, including four forensic staff, had volunteered for Operation Phuket.

One of them, Rotorua police photographer Senior Constable Wayne Hendrikse, said he believed he would be photographing bodies in mortuaries as part of forensic documentation.

He understood he would have to take photos of up to nine autopsies a day. As of two weeks ago, 2000 post-mortems had still to be done.

"I have seen 150 dead people in the last six years with car accidents, murder victims and suicides, but obviously I haven't seen them in such a huge volume as I'm expecting."

- STAFF REPORTER, NZPA