Calls Flood In To Missing Persons Helpline

[george]

Calls flood in to missing persons helpline

BANGKOK: -- A week after massive tsunamis hit Thailand's southern Andaman coast, telephones at a missing persons centre set up at Thammasat University's Rangsit Campus have still not stopped ringing, with thousands of people remaining unaccounted for.

Dr. Parinya Thewanaramitrakul, who is coordinating the tsunami relief centre at the campus, said that since the number of telephone lines was doubled from 15 to 30 on 1 January, the helpline had been inundated with calls from both Thais and foreigners hoping to gain news of their missing friends and relatives.

She also noted that the Ministry of Justice's Central Institute of Forensic Science needed interpreters able to speak French, Spanish, English and German to help communicate with foreign survivors and their relatives.

--TNA 2005-01-02