Broken lock on upvc front door

[House123]

Hi - can anyone help with the below?

I have a typical upvc front door with a locking strip down the side. To lock the door, the handle is lifted to engage the strip in the door frame and this allows the key to be turned to lock the door.

Lifting the handle no longer engages the locking strip so we assume whatever mechanism that connected the two is now loose or broken with the result that the door can't be locked.

Can the strip be removed safely to enable checking the locking mechanism? (don't want to make things worse!) and is there anything we can do as a temporary fix to lock the door until it can be replaced?

All advice/suggestions welcome!

Thanks

 

[foxhole]

Both lock and 'strip' are replacable, change both as must be worn badly to fail.