Man arrested in UK for cruel tsunami hoax emails

1/2/2005 7:00:00 PM GMT

UK police said on Sunday it had arrested a 40-year man for sending a series of hoax emails to relatives of people missing in Asia’s tsunami, saying that their loved ones were confirmed dead.

The hoax mails -- which purported to be from the "Foreign Office Bureau" in Thailand -- were sent to several people who had posted appeals for information about relatives and friends on a Sky News TV website.

Police arrested the hoaxer in Lincolnshire, in the east of England and seized computer equipment in a joint operation by London's Metropolitan Police and Lincolnshire police.

According to the police, all the hoax emails came from one fake email address, ukgovfoffice@aol.com.

"The British government would not use email to convey news of the death of a loved one," police said. "Anyone receiving such an email should treat it with utmost caution."

Sky News said it was "disgusted" at the abuse of the message board on its website, and that it contacted the police immediately after it was alerted to the hoaxes.

According to a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police, officers are dealing with the case as a very serious crime. If any hoaxer is caught, he could face charges of malicious communication or causing a public nuisance.

Asia’s Sunday’s tsunami was triggered by a 9.1 earthquake off western Indonesia. So far 130,000 people have been confirmed dead, including at least 35 Britons.

However, officials expect the death toll to increase during the coming days and perhaps weeks.

1.8 million need food

Meanwhile, Jan Egeland, the UN official in charge of emergency relief, has estimated the number of tsunami victims needing food at 1.8 million, saying that he expects the number to rise further.

"We will need to provide food assistance to 1.8 million in the affected countries," Egeland said.

He added that about 700,000 people in Sri Lanka would receive aid supplies within about three days. But it would take much longer to reach 1 million others in Indonesia, in desperate need for food.

The international aid effort has faced criticism for being slow in delivering aid to millions of people devastated by Sunday’s tsunami waves that hit 11 countries.

However, Egeland says that now the aid efforts were coming together.

"Overall I am more optimistic today than I was yesterday, and especially the day before yesterday, that the global community will be able to face up to this enormous challenge," Egeland said at a news briefing.

"The international system is working," he said.

He noted that hundreds of relief organizations worldwide were now working in a coordinated fashion with the UN.

But Egeland stressed that "those who should be in command are the countries themselves and the communities themselves."