Straw said that in addition to the 49 confirmed deaths, 391 Britons were missing and were highly likely to have been victims of the giants waves which devastated Indian Ocean nations on December 26.

Britain had previously put its casualty toll at 41 confirmed dead and 159 missing.

“What we’ve sought to do is give the figures about confirmed deaths and in addition to those, give the best estimates of the experts (on missing Britons),” Straw told a news conference on Friday during a visit to the devastated Thai island resort of Phuket.

The total death toll from the tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, stands at over 150,000, according to government and health officials.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India were the hardest hit. Indonesia’s health minister said the toll in his country was likely to be more than 100,000.

Straw went on to imply that the British toll would rise yet further.

“The fact that (the figures) have more than doubled in the space of four days indicates the imprecision of estimates of this kind,” he told BBC radio.

“The scale and magnitude of this disaster makes it literally unique.In this case, bodies are still being washed up, unearthed, so the total number of potential casualties is still not known.”

This is dreadful news as families, friends and loved ones are still awaiting news on the missing. It could be quite a while before we know the true figures.

For those waiting for news, that is a heavy load to carry. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.