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The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has launched a new facility designed to help track down Britons caught up in a crisis abroad.

According to a survey carried out by tickbox.net in January, two thirds of British people are unaware of their loved ones' exact locations when they go overseas, and more than half of Brits abroad have failed to leave details with their friends and family.

The Locate tool, which is available on the FCO website from today (16 May), enables travellers to register information about their trip and emergency contact details online, making it easier for them to be found in an emergency.

While the proportion of people that have been caught up in crises abroad is small, a fifth of Brits report being involved in an incident that compelled them to contact people at home to confirm they were safe.

Locate has been launched in response to the development of the travel industry, with some 68m foreign trips made by Britons in 2006 and people increasingly visiting remote and potentially unstable regions.

Foreign Office minister Meg Munn said: 'In our survey more than nine out of ten Britons said they would feel reassured to know that in the event of an emergency abroad, the local Embassy could quickly find their location.'

Lonely Planet writer Frances Linzee Gordon added: 'More and more people want to head to remote places and visit areas away from the tourist hotspots. Whilst it's great that we can enjoy this freedom, we often lose touch with home and few of us ever think about the consequences of no one really knowing where we are.'

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