A SCIENTIST who was given the gruesome task of trying to identify the 5,500 people who died in the Boxing Day tsunami that devastated Thailand 10 years ago has spoken of the challenges she faced dealing with the largest tragedy of its kind.

The work carried out by Professor Sue Black, of Dundee University, was just one part of a global operation to respond to a natural disaster of such scale that it is widely seen as the largest single event of human tragedy in modern history.

An estimated 230,000 lives were lost, including 151 British nationals, as countries around the Indian Ocean were engulfed by an unprecedented assault by the seas.

As the tragic events unfolded on television news a decade ago, Ms Black's husband turned to her and told her to pack her bags, because she would have to go.

As one of the UK's leading forensic anthropologists, she became part of the disaster response team who attended in the aftermath, travelling to Thailand on New Year's Eve 2004 and spending the next month dealing with the grim task of identifying some of the thousands who had been killed.

She said: "The phone call came and I flew out on New Year's Eve. The plane was full of family and friends heading over to Thailand hoping to find their loved ones alive, but, if not, hoping to find them so that they could reclaim them."

Ms Black, who is director of the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) at Dundee University, and her colleagues were charged with setting up operations to correctly identify the 5,500 people who died in Thailand, many of whom were tourists.

"It was incredibly challenging, because you had so many deceased, probably the largest event that we can recall in history," she said.

"The biggest thing, of course, was the heat and humidity.

"The bodies were being collected from all around the country and being brought into the cities and into the temples, and of course the temples were not able to cope with the enormity of deceased.

"It really was just awful and our biggest challenge was to get the bodies into cold storage as quickly as possible."

She recalled how the Thai authorities had been unable to cope while international teams sent out to identify and repatriate those from their own countries were under increasing pressure from governments, the press and victims' families.

"We learned from the Bali bombing that 50 per cent of people who were identified just by their face alone were incorrect," Prof Black said.

"So, a number of the bodies that they had released, we called back, which was very difficult for families, and we found one or two of those had been released incorrectly.

"What we cannot do is get it wrong once, because not only are we wrong with that family, we are also wrong with another family."

Working out of Phuket, Ms Black helped to set up identification processes involving records of where bodies had been found, fingerprinting, photography, X-rays and post-mortem examination.

DNA and dental records are among the key factors used to determine identity.

The process lasted a year, with 5,100 of the estimated 5,500 victims in Thailand identified.

"There is a huge learning process comes out of these events that in many ways prepare you better for the next one," he said.

"If ever there can be a good thing to come out of these horrible events, it is the learning and the knowledge that you don't make the same mistakes again."

David Cameron paid tribute to the victims of tsunami.

The Prime Minister praised the "real resilience" of the communities which had since rebuilt their lives as well as the generosity of the international response.

He said the UK Government alone had provided almost £300 million to support the reconstruction of affected areas.

"Today we think of all those for whom Boxing Day is no longer a happy festive celebration but the day they lost a loved one in the Indian Ocean tsunami," he said.

"At this poignant time, my prayers are with all those remembering people who were caught up in the disaster, including the 151 British nationals who lost their lives."