In Thailand around 5,000 people are thought to have been killed when the giant wave struck on Boxing Day 2004. The number of foreigners reported missing in the disaster prompted the Thai government to enlist the help of forensic experts from across the globe. They set up a specialist disaster victim identification centre, where identification work is still continuing months after the disaster hit.
For those who lost relatives in the disaster the identification and repatriation of a body is essential in allowing them to start rebuilding their lives.
The tsunami swept through an area of Thailand hundreds of miles across, scattering debris and the dead alike. Simply recovering all the bodies was a mammoth task for a police force already stretched to the limit rescuing injured survivors. With so many bodies being recovered, temples were being used as temporary mortuaries. With no electricity or running water they were hardly ideal. But...
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