EFFORTS are continuing today to locate a group of at least 19 British holidaymakers who are missing following the Chinese earthquake.
China has begun airlifting aid to the areas worst affected by the massive quake, as new reports of casualties were poised to push the death toll close to 20,000.
There has been no news on the whereabouts of the Britons, who were travelling in the
worst-hit region of the country.
The 19 were clients of Travel Collection, which is part of holiday company Kuoni, and were in Wenchuan county on a coach trip when the 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck on Monday.
A team of British experts from the International Rescue Corps (IRC) are due to arrive in Hong Kong today before being taken by helicopter to an as-yet undecided location.
The Foreign Office said it has so far had no reports of any British casualties, but officials are attempting to make contact with "a number" of missing people.
While Kuoni and the Foreign Office sought news of the group, UK travel organisation Abta was able to say that at least 100 UK tourists travelling in the earthquake region of Sichuan province were safe and unhurt.
A group of 31 British tourists panda-watching in the world famous Wolong National Nature Reserve have returned safely to Chengdu, China's Foreign Ministry said, although there was still no word on the fate of 12 missing Americans on a World Wildlife Fund tour.
The 19 Kuoni tourists were travelling on Monday by coach from Chengdu to Wolong in Wenchuan county in the Sichuan province with a local guide and driver.
A Kuoni spokesman said: "All lines of communication to the region are down and as such no further information is known at this time.
"The UK operations team and duty officer in conjunction with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK and China are continuing to try to make contact with the group."
The rising death toll, which continues to climb as rescuers reach more and more affected areas, includes nearly 80% of one town's population.
The official Xinhua News Agency said 7,700 people died in Yingxiu town in Wenchuan county, the epicentre of Monday's 7.9-magnitude earthquake.
Xinhua quoted government officials as saying rescuers who hiked into Yingxiu found it "much worse than expected." Out of a population of about 10,000, only 2,300 had survived, and 1,000 of those were badly hurt.
The International Rescue Corps has sent a team of 10 highly trained volunteers from across the UK including a fireman, a landscape gardener and a structural engineer. The team includes rescuers from Scotland.
Spokeswoman Julie Ryan said the team was bringing specialist rescue equipment to help locate people trapped underground including cameras that can be lowered into the rubble and listening devices.
Edinburgh-based Mercy Corps is also providing humanitarian assistance with emergency response efforts.
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The Foreign Office emergency contact number for people trying to trace friends or family in the region is 0207 700 8000.The full article contains 515 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
