Tsunami probe begins

LONDON - The families of victims of the Asian tsunami have condemned the international authorities for their role in the disaster, which killed 270,000 people including 147 Britons.

During a series of emotionally-charged questions at the opening of the inquest into the deaths, the families described how their grief was compounded by a catalogue of blunders.

They said widespread confusion and lack of official information resulted in unacceptable delays in the return of their loved ones' bodies. They also asked why the international community had been unable to prevent such a heavy death toll.

Liz Jones, whose 23-year-old daughter Charlotte, a gap year student at Bristol University, was swept away in Thailand, said she would have survived if an early warning system of "five minutes" notice was in place.

Sharon Howard described how after being stonewalled by the police and Foreign Office for weeks she eventually heard that the body of her 6-year-old son, Taylor, was to be repatriated from a voicemail message left by a Channel 4 reporter.

The London inquest also heard from one of the unnamed friends of a victim whose body was sent to Germany by the Thai authorities, where examinations involved the removal of the hands and jaw bone.

One woman said it took three and a half months to have the identity of her husband officially confirmed even though she had found his body shortly after the tragedy.

- INDEPENDENT