Police aid tsunami relief effort

Officers were based in the badly-hit resort of Phuket

A team of Greater Manchester Police officers who flew out to Thailand to help victims of the tsunami have returned to the UK.

Based in the badly-hit resort of Phuket, they helped recover, identify and return victims' bodies as part of an international police team.

They also visited refugee centres taking gifts to orphans whose parents died in the Boxing Day disaster.

The team of 15 officers were led by Det Supt Simon Barraclough.

'Unbearable conditions'

He said: "When we arrived in Thailand we were all overwhelmed by the scale of the job we had to do but every single member of the team was focused and committed to the job in hand.

"It is difficult to describe the conditions which the team were working in as at times it was unbearable.

"One of the mortuary sites we were working at had more than 2,500 bodies and the team were also working in temperatures in excess of 45 degrees.

"During a rare break many of the team members asked if they could visit a local refugee centre where orphans whose parents were killed in the tsunami were being looked after.

"They went and met the workers at the centre as well as taking gifts for the children, which was certainly a very humbling experience."