Search begins for UK quake victims

By Nic Hopkins, CNN.com Writer

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A search has begun across Gujarat for hundreds of British nationals thought to have been caught in the middle of Friday's deadly earthquake.

Officials at the British High Commission in New Delhi are orchestrating the search for British nationals amid unconfirmed reports that at least one British citizen has died in the quake-ravaged city of Ahmedabad.

Britain is the largest foreign direct investor in Gujarat, and the two also have very strong cultural links through the thousands of Gujaratis who live in the United Kingdom.

The British High Commission in New Delhi believes as many as several hundred British nationals remain in the region, of which many remain unaccounted for. It cannot, however, provide even a rough estimate of the number of British citizens that could have been affected by the quake.

"So far, there are no confirmed reports of major casualties among the population of British nationals, but there are large numbers still unaccounted for," says economic first secretary Katrina Johnson from the High Commission in New Delhi.

Ms Johnson, who is co-ordinating the efforts to contact the British nationals, says as much as 95 percent of the infrastructure around the city of Bhuj has been destroyed, making it difficult to make contact with the area.

"There are many people who have called in to say they are fine, and they know of others who are also okay, but there would certainly be more without access to communications," Ms Johnson says.

"Also, there remain a large number of bodies under piles of concrete, so we just don't know.''

Britain has already dispatched rescue teams to the area to help sift through the piles of rubble to locate survivors.

Shireen Mistry, a spokeswoman for the British Deputy high Commission in Mumbai, says the flow of British nationals in and out of Gujarat is high because of the strong cultural bond between the two regions.

"There is a rapid flow of investment in both directions, largely because a lot of people from Gujarat now live in the United Kingdom," she says. "Culturally and financially, Gujarat and Britain are very closely tied."

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