Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has doubled estimates of the British tsunami death toll to a possible 440.
"The number of confirmed British fatalities in the whole region is now 49. This includes three in the Maldives and 10 in Sri Lanka," he said. "In addition, 391 are now listed by the Metropolitan Police as likely, or very likely, to have been involved as victims."
Mr Straw has been visiting the devastated tourist areas of Thailand, including Patong beach where he met four British survivors. He had previously attended an emergency summit in the Indonesian capital Jakarta to decide how £2.2bn of international aid can be best used.
However, last night the West London coroner Alison Thompson formally named 15 people killed in the tsunami disaster and opened inquests into their deaths.
It has also been suggested that police have drawn up a list of 4,000 missing Britons, which has not been publicly released.
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