Searching for clues of the lives lost

New Zealand police team (left to right) Alan Hendrickson, Pete Summerfield, Karl Wilson and Phil Simmonds at the makeshift morgue in Khao Lak, Thailand. Picture / Chris Skelton

At one of the temples of the dead in Thailand, New Zealand police toil in the heat, checking bodies for clues that may help identify them.

They are not looking specifically for New Zealanders, but admit they are keeping an eye out for their own.

The bodies come from the devastated coastal resort area of Khao Lak, which was largely flattened by the Boxing Day tsunami.

Although police are not allowed to speak to the media, one officer there said it was exhausting work, but they were coping.

"We have a job to do."

They are used to deaths. There are road smashes and plane crashes they have worked on at home.

The difference here is the magnitude, the conditions and the extent of the decay.

It is hot work and the bodies lie side by side, an almost endless supply of corpses. The confirmed dead has reached 5000 in Thailand.

Unlike other areas affected by the waves, many of the dead in Thailand were tourists. They come from Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Finland, the United States, Italy, Norway, Britain ... the list of countries goes on.

It is laborious and painstaking work and has to be carried out methodically on each body.

The body is numbered and searched for anything that could lead to identification, so that it can be repatriated to the home country.

At another temple nearby, New Zealanders also work. Here when a photographer was present they managed to process just 12 bodies in several hours but said that was good progress.

They open mouths, inspect teeth and check what people were wearing.

One man found a driver's licence in a pocket on clothes one corpse was wearing. Another found gold teeth which could lead to identification, although this may still take a long time.

Afterwards the bodies are put into refrigerated units which have been fitted with shelves.

At the main temple in Khao Lak, Napier police senior sergeant Mike Wright is one of the New Zealand disaster victims identification team, which includes police, dentists and coroners.

Although none of these men worked on the aftermath of the Bali bombing, he said the team was trained for this work and was here to help. "I thought I had a little bit of an appreciation of it before I came over, you know, I watched it on TV, but you've got to be here to fully understand it."

He spoke highly of the efforts of the Thai people.

"From the highest levels to the ordinary person in the street helping us, it's been just tremendous."

The New Zealanders would be here until the job is done, he said.

"But to be done correctly, it is a time-consuming process and it must be done correctly. There's no quick fix here."