Britons 'Missing' After Chilean Quake

Four UK nationals are among those feared missing in the Chilean earthquake disaster.

Kirsty Duff from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, and Dave Sandercock from Edinburgh, who are both 25, arrived in the country three weeks ago.

Their families are growing concerned about their safety.

Meanwhile Andre Lanyon, from Guernsey, and Laura Hapgood, both 29, have also failed to contact their families. They went to Pichilemu on Friday.

The ongoing relief effort is focused on Concepción and Constitución, which were closest to the epicentre of the 8.8 Richter scale quake.

Chilean Government officials have suggested more than 700 have died in the disaster.

Britain's ambassador to the region has spoken of the 'impressive' Chilean response.

There are reports that some essential services in Santiago are already returning to normal.

Speaking to BBC Radio Four yesterday, British Ambassador to Chile, Jon Benjamin said that the Chilean rescue effort was impressive, and gave details of the work of the British embassy in tracing British citizens.

"The Embassy opened up very soon after the earthquake and we’ve been working throughout the night with teams of colleagues, with reinforcements coming in now from Buenos Aires, our Embassy there, a team coming in from London and we are working through lists we have of British citizens."

He said that so far there had been no reports of British casualties.

"We are focussing our efforts around the area of Concepción... we are following up all the information we have about British people who, who live, work and may be visiting there."

In another interview with Sky News the ambassador mentioned that whilst Chile's capital Santiago had sustained "a lot of damage", essential services were starting to return to normal.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressed his "shock and sadness" at the second major earthquake to hit the Americas in 2010.

(PR/GK)