Two Hong Kong police officers sent to Phuket after the Boxing Day tsunami have told how they helped Interpol confirm the identities of 15 victims using their fingerprints.
Nine were Hong Kong residents of Canadian, French, German, British and Chinese nationality, while the other six were Canadian, German and Swedish nationals.
At Interpol's request, the Hong Kong Police identification bureau sent sergeants Hsia Kai-keung and Au Suk-yee to the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification Information Management Centre in Phuket from February 13 to March 13. They handled 80 files containing more than 400 victims' finger and palm prints.
A total of 25 Hong Kong people were killed by the tsunami, while 19 are still missing in Thailand.
Meeting reporters after her mission, Sergeant Au said potential print matches were narrowed down by computer, but she had to rely on her own eyes to confirm each match. 'The quality of some prints was very bad, so it was very difficult to make matches,' she said.
The two officers left for Thailand on February 13, almost two months after the Indian Ocean disaster hit on December 26.
