A FURTHER 15 Gwent police officers have left this week for Thailand to help with the grim task of identifying British victims.

A mixture of police officers and support staff flew out to the resort of Phuket where they will be based for the next two weeks.

Detective Superintendent Geoff Ronayne said: "The objective is to try to identify as many victims from the UK as we can using techniques, such as fingerprint technology.

"If we can provide some sort of closure for the victims of the disaster and repatriate bodies to their loved ones, then we will have done something to ease their burden."

Gwent police also currently have two family liaison officers based at Heathrow airport on a two-week secondment to comfort relatives of those missing as they travel back into the country.

The cost of sending police on secondment to Thailand is borne by the government and not Gwent council tax payers.

* A GWENT police fingerprint expert has spoken of his horror after returning from Thailand as part of the international tsunami relief effort.

Jonathan Vaughan flew to the resort of Phuket to help identify bodies of victims from all over the world caught up in the Indian Ocean tidal wave which devastated the country.

But despite the trauma of witnessing the aftermath of the disaster, which left 200,000 people dead across south-east Asia, he was inspired by the spirit of the Thai people coping with such adversity.

The ordeal of facing hundreds of bodies, many of them children, was distressing for the married 32-year-old father of two young sons.

"There are thousands and thousands of bodies coming through and it was pretty hard going and there were a lot of children.

"Although I've dealt with bodies in the past, I had never dealt with a child before and I've got a young family of my own.

"It's going to take between six and nine months to get through them all. We were only scratching the surface."

Fingerprint, DNA and dental checks are used as well as identification through clothing and jewellery.

For nationals of countries with identification cards which use fingerprinting, the task was made easier.

British victims can still be traced through fingerprinting by matching prints from everyday items they would have touched in their home.

Mr Vaughan, Gwent Police's deputy head of fingerprinting, was flown to one of the Phi Phi's islands to see one of the worst hit areas.

"There was complete devastation and not many people got off alive." But he did encounter some uplifting tales in the midst of so much suffering.

"The Thai people have got incredible spirit and they live life to the full and the way they move on with things is amazing.

"Most of the staff at the hotel where I was staying had lost family or relatives and it was totally different from this country where we'd still be grieving.

"So much has already been rebuilt and tourism is their livelihood.