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13 March 2011
Last updated at 21:27 ET
An increasing number of Britons are raising concerns about friends and relatives who may have been caught up in the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
A Foreign Office helpline for worried people received more than 800 calls on Sunday, taking the total to 4,000.
Minister Jeremy Browne said he could not be definitive about UK victims, but foreign nationals would "almost certainly" have been involved.
Meanwhile, a UK rescue team is to start work in Ofunato on the east coast.
Ofunato, about 100 miles north of Sendai, is one of the many coastal communities laid to waste by the power of Friday's tsunami, which was triggered by a massive earthquake off Japan's north-east coast.
So far there have not been any confirmed British deaths, but on Sunday the number of people concerned about British friends and relatives in Japan who have contacted the Foreign Office's emergency line rose from 3,200 at 0800 GMT to 4,000 by the evening.
'Situation evolving' Mr Browne, a Foreign Office minister, told Sky News: "I am not in a position to make a definitive statement about the number of British nationals caught up in it, but clearly it is a huge, devastating disaster and there almost certainly will be foreign nationals involved."
The British ambassador to Japan, David Warren, confirmed there were "some cases of British nationals unaccounted for".
Mr Warren, who has travelled to Sendai, said that he and his team had visited six major hospitals, where there were no reported cases of British casualties.
He added: "But the situation is evolving because we are only on day two. We will be going back [on Monday] to check again."
The vast majority of the 17,000 Britons living in Japan are in Tokyo or Osaka, but phone lines in some areas outside the major cities are still cut off.
An additional 45 British consular staff are now on duty in Japan. Embassy response teams are also at Tokyo's Haneda and Narita airports to help British nationals and to liaise with airlines.
The Foreign Office said the British Embassy in Tokyo and British Consulate in Osaka had been working "around the clock".
Meanwhile, the 63-strong UK International Search and Rescue (ISAR) team is starting work to assist the rescue effort alongside US experts having arrived in Japan on Sunday.
The British team of 59 search and rescue experts, four medics and two sniffer dogs will join the search for live victims that may be trapped in rubble and debris.
It is one of only 17 in the world classified as a "heavy team", meaning it travels with the specialist tools needed to penetrate reinforced concrete and metal to reach trapped victims.
The team includes specialists from fire brigades across the UK, including Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, West Sussex, West Midlands, and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Services.
Japanese broadcaster NHK says the total number of confirmed deaths caused by the disaster now stands at 1,596, but police warn the death toll in the Miyagi region alone could top 10,000.
Humanitarian appeals have been launched by UK charities Save the Children, the British Red Cross, and aid agency World Vision.
The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for Britons in Japan and is advising against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and the north-east of the country.
British nationals and friends and relatives of those in Japan should contact it in the UK on +44(0) 20 7008 0000.
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A Foreign Office helpline for worried people received more than 800 calls on Sunday, taking the total to 4,000.
Minister Jeremy Browne said he could not be definitive about UK victims, but foreign nationals would "almost certainly" have been involved.
Meanwhile, a UK rescue team is to start work in Ofunato on the east coast.
Ofunato, about 100 miles north of Sendai, is one of the many coastal communities laid to waste by the power of Friday's tsunami, which was triggered by a massive earthquake off Japan's north-east coast.
So far there have not been any confirmed British deaths, but on Sunday the number of people concerned about British friends and relatives in Japan who have contacted the Foreign Office's emergency line rose from 3,200 at 0800 GMT to 4,000 by the evening.
'Situation evolving' Mr Browne, a Foreign Office minister, told Sky News: "I am not in a position to make a definitive statement about the number of British nationals caught up in it, but clearly it is a huge, devastating disaster and there almost certainly will be foreign nationals involved."
The British ambassador to Japan, David Warren, confirmed there were "some cases of British nationals unaccounted for".
Mr Warren, who has travelled to Sendai, said that he and his team had visited six major hospitals, where there were no reported cases of British casualties.
He added: "But the situation is evolving because we are only on day two. We will be going back [on Monday] to check again."
The vast majority of the 17,000 Britons living in Japan are in Tokyo or Osaka, but phone lines in some areas outside the major cities are still cut off.
An additional 45 British consular staff are now on duty in Japan. Embassy response teams are also at Tokyo's Haneda and Narita airports to help British nationals and to liaise with airlines.
The Foreign Office said the British Embassy in Tokyo and British Consulate in Osaka had been working "around the clock".
Meanwhile, the 63-strong UK International Search and Rescue (ISAR) team is starting work to assist the rescue effort alongside US experts having arrived in Japan on Sunday.
The British team of 59 search and rescue experts, four medics and two sniffer dogs will join the search for live victims that may be trapped in rubble and debris.
It is one of only 17 in the world classified as a "heavy team", meaning it travels with the specialist tools needed to penetrate reinforced concrete and metal to reach trapped victims.
The team includes specialists from fire brigades across the UK, including Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, West Sussex, West Midlands, and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Services.
Japanese broadcaster NHK says the total number of confirmed deaths caused by the disaster now stands at 1,596, but police warn the death toll in the Miyagi region alone could top 10,000.
Humanitarian appeals have been launched by UK charities Save the Children, the British Red Cross, and aid agency World Vision.
The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for Britons in Japan and is advising against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and the north-east of the country.
British nationals and friends and relatives of those in Japan should contact it in the UK on +44(0) 20 7008 0000.
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