Some New Zealanders found, others added to missing list

Concerns continue to grow as 124 New Zealanders believed to be in Thailand's tsunami-devastated area remain unaccounted for, including one couple feared dead.

Foreign Minister Phil Goff said today 180 more of the 770 New Zealanders registered in Thailand had been accounted for over the past 24 hours, but at the same time, others had been added to the register.

Still only one New Zealander was confirmed dead, but another report had recently come in that a couple may also be dead.

"We haven't been able to confirm that, so we're still working on that particular case," Mr Goff said on National Radio.

Overall 279 New Zealanders in Thailand remain unaccounted for, and about 2000 are registered in all countries affected by the disaster.

Of those 2000 people, 843 had been found alive and well -- up 300 on yesterday.

Seventeen people have either been, or are still in hospital in Thailand with lacerations, broken bones and bruising.

Mr Goff said none had life-threatening injuries, but some were severely traumatised.

"One young man for example, who has severe lacerations, in the water for five hours, had practically given up. Two Canadians hauled him on to a piece of driftwood ... he is going to need some help when he gets back. Anyone who has been through that experience would."

Mr Goff said the fact of the matter was that a lot of people had been swept out to sea, which would eliminate a lot of hard evidence of fatalities, and identifying those recovered was getting more difficult by the day.

"It's now four days since the tragedy occurred. The bodies were in bad condition generally when they came out of the water, the mortuary facilities are pretty basic -- some bodies not even brought to mortuaries yet."

Mr Goff said 11 members of a forensic expert team were to arrive in Thailand today from New Zealand to assist with the international effort.

They would be working mainly on DNA to start with, including fingerprinting.

Photographs of bodies had been taken in many of the mortuaries as they were brought in and there were 300 New Zealand passport photos to compare with them.

"For many, it will be DNA that counts in the end, and this process is going to take quite a considerable time."

Mr Goff said on a positive note, New Zealanders were being discovered alive and well as officials made their way through resorts in the Phuket area.

Many had not contacted the local embassy to report their whereabouts because they hadn't wanted to bother an extremely busy department.

"Can I put out a plea to friends and family of all those ... returning New Zealanders ... if you haven't notified authorities, please do so," Mr Goff said.

Red Cross lines were open to take calls, there was a New Zealand help desk at Bangkok airport and people should not assume their names would be automatically checked off as they went through immigration.

In other parts of South Asia the fear of New Zealand fatalities to New Zealanders was much smaller and the picture clearer, Mr Goff said.

- NZPA