Scottish police help quake effort

Victim identification specialists will travel to disaster areas

The Foreign Office is to recruit specialist police officers from Scotland to help in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami disaster.

A request has gone to all Scottish forces to provide up to 30 officers to be made available to travel within the next few days.

It comes as the amount of money donated to the disaster appeal in Scotland has reached £12m.

The tragedy has claimed an estimated 150,000 lives, with millions homeless.

Dumfries and Galloway Chief Constable David Strang, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos), said officers would fulfil a variety of roles.

'Victim identification'

He said: "We're wanting to support the relief effort in South East Asia and we've been asked by the Foreign Office to send police officers with specialist skills in disaster victim identification in particular.

"At the moment it's in the region of 20 or 30 and we're just looking at the requirements that they're asking for.

"Clearly we've also got skills in family liaison officers for dealing with families that have been bereaved."

I don't think anything can prepare me for the scale of tragedy Detective Constable Astrid Telfer

One officer, Detective Constable Astrid Telfer of Lothian and Borders Police, is heading to Sri Lanka after independently volunteering her services.

Det Con Telfer is a member of the International Police Association.

She has taken a month off work and is paying for her own flights to Colombo to help co-ordinate the distribution of international aid.

She said: "I don't think anything can prepare me for the scale of tragedy that I'm going to face when I get there.

"I'm fully aware that the people that I'll be dealing with will be in total disaster zones which I've seen on the television."

Portable generators have been donated to the aid effort

Another consignment of aid is also due to be flown out from Scotland, including generators for the Maldives.

The large generators, strong enough to power a field hospital, were donated by Scottish Water.

The units are travelling by road to East Midlands Airport and will be flown out on Saturday.

Charities across the country are also urging Scots to offer their time as well as money.

The scale of the public response to the disaster is such that aid agencies say they badly need volunteers to staff their shops.

Church mission

Meanwhile, a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is flying to Sri Lanka to offer aid to crisis-hit communities there.

Professor Alan Main used to be the minister at St Andrew's Church in the capital Colombo.

He is returning to see how friends and former colleagues are coping with the aftermath of the tsunami and taking thousands of pounds in aid raised by businesses in Aberdeen.