Update on death toll from December quake and tsunami
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Update on death toll from December quake and tsunami
JAKARTA, Indonesia - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years rocked northern Indonesia on Sunday and launched tidal waves that swamped villages and seaside resorts across Asia, killing more than 700 people in five countries.
Some 300 were reported killed in Sri Lanka, 286 in India, 94 in Indonesia, 61 in Thailand and seven in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise.
The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) said a magnitude-8.9 quake — one capable of massive damage — struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra at 8 a.m. Sunday. The USGS (news - web sites) revised the quake's size upward from magnitude-8.5.
Soon after it hit, immense waves or tsunamis crashed into several countries, and aftershocks in the magnitude-7 range were seen, the USGS said, raising the possibility of a catastrophic regional death toll.
Waves crashed into coastal villages over a wide area of Sri Lanka — some 1,000 miles west of the quake's epicenter — killing some 300 people and displacing thousands of others, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake.
Parts of the northeastern districts of Muttur and Trincomalee were inundated by waves as high as 20 feet, said D. Rodrigo, a Muttur district official.
In India, beaches were turned into virtual open mortuaries with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore.
At least 150 were recovered around the coastal town of Cuddalore, said deputy Superintendent of police K. Panniselvan. Some 100 others were found around Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu, said Police Chief R. Nataraj. Thirty-six were killed in neighboring Andhra Pradesh, said state Chief Minister Y. Rajashekhar Reddy.
Officials at the USGS, based in Golden, Colo., blamed the tidal waves on the quake.
"This is not unusual occurrence for an earthquake this size and where it's located," said geophysicist Julie Martinez.
Martinez said the quake was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 quake hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.
At least 94 people were killed in Indonesia's Aceh province, hospital and local officials said.
Bireun district head Mustofa Glanggang told The Associated Press that 50 people were killed in Bireun district, and 35 bodies were brought to Cut Meutia Hospital in the northern city of Lhokseumawe, an official there said. Nine others were killed in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, witnesses told a local radio station.
Communications were down in several coastal towns facing the epicenter of the undersea quake off the western coast of Aceh, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage in the region.
"The ground was shaking for a long time," resident Yayan Zamzani told Jakarta's el-Shinta radio station. "It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years."
Sixty-one people died and many were missing in popular southern Thailand resorts, the Narenthorn Center of the Public Health Ministry reported. The center also reported that people were swept away in Phuket by a tsunami with waves surging as high as 16 feet.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said a powerful earthquake jolted a wide area of that country early Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake was reported to be a magnitude-7.3.
Police in Malaysia said seven people were killed in tidal waves.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.
The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.
Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
Some 300 were reported killed in Sri Lanka, 286 in India, 94 in Indonesia, 61 in Thailand and seven in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise.
The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) said a magnitude-8.9 quake — one capable of massive damage — struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra at 8 a.m. Sunday. The USGS (news - web sites) revised the quake's size upward from magnitude-8.5.
Soon after it hit, immense waves or tsunamis crashed into several countries, and aftershocks in the magnitude-7 range were seen, the USGS said, raising the possibility of a catastrophic regional death toll.
Waves crashed into coastal villages over a wide area of Sri Lanka — some 1,000 miles west of the quake's epicenter — killing some 300 people and displacing thousands of others, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake.
Parts of the northeastern districts of Muttur and Trincomalee were inundated by waves as high as 20 feet, said D. Rodrigo, a Muttur district official.
In India, beaches were turned into virtual open mortuaries with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore.
At least 150 were recovered around the coastal town of Cuddalore, said deputy Superintendent of police K. Panniselvan. Some 100 others were found around Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu, said Police Chief R. Nataraj. Thirty-six were killed in neighboring Andhra Pradesh, said state Chief Minister Y. Rajashekhar Reddy.
Officials at the USGS, based in Golden, Colo., blamed the tidal waves on the quake.
"This is not unusual occurrence for an earthquake this size and where it's located," said geophysicist Julie Martinez.
Martinez said the quake was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 quake hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.
At least 94 people were killed in Indonesia's Aceh province, hospital and local officials said.
Bireun district head Mustofa Glanggang told The Associated Press that 50 people were killed in Bireun district, and 35 bodies were brought to Cut Meutia Hospital in the northern city of Lhokseumawe, an official there said. Nine others were killed in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, witnesses told a local radio station.
Communications were down in several coastal towns facing the epicenter of the undersea quake off the western coast of Aceh, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage in the region.
"The ground was shaking for a long time," resident Yayan Zamzani told Jakarta's el-Shinta radio station. "It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years."
Sixty-one people died and many were missing in popular southern Thailand resorts, the Narenthorn Center of the Public Health Ministry reported. The center also reported that people were swept away in Phuket by a tsunami with waves surging as high as 16 feet.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said a powerful earthquake jolted a wide area of that country early Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake was reported to be a magnitude-7.3.
Police in Malaysia said seven people were killed in tidal waves.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.
The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.
Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
Last edited by AussieMark on Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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- AussieMark
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More than 2,200 dead as quake triggers destruction across Asia
JAKARTA - More than 2,200 people were killed and hundreds more were missing feared dead Sunday after a huge earthquake off northern Indonesia triggered giant tidal waves and flash floods across western Asia.
The quake, one of the largest in history and measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, struck in the Indian ocean southwest of Aceh province on Sumatra island and unleashed massive destruction throughout the region.
South Asia was the worst hit region, with at least 2,000 deaths reported by Sri Lanka and India.
The Sri Lankan government declared a state of disaster as at least 1,000 people were killed after huge waves battered the country’s eastern and southern coastlines, swamping entire villages.
Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who is in London, was expected to cut short her holiday and return home, a spokesman for her office said, adding she was also appealing for international help.
Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil told the Press Trust of India around 1,000 people were dead in south India.
In Indonesia, government officials said at least 150 had been killed but warned they expected the death toll to rise substantially.
Popular resorts crowded with Christmas revellers in Thailand and Malaysia were also devastated by tsunamis.
At least 99 people were killed and more than 1,300 were wounded in southern Thailand, with many of the deaths occurring in the idyllic tourist islands of Phuket and Phi Phi.
A police officer in Phuket said at least six of the dead were foreigners who drowned on Karon beach on the island’s west coast.
The death toll was likely to rise with several officials reporting over Thai radio and television that beachgoers and villagers had gone missing.
Police said 31 people had died in nearby Krabi on Thailand’s southern mainland, at least 11 were killed on tiny Phi Phi.
In Malaysia, six people drowned and several others were missing after being swept away by a tidal wave in the northwestern resort island of Penang, a popular destination with foreign tourists, police and rescue officials said.
The victims were swimming off the popular Batu Ferringhi beach when the wave hit, a police spokesman told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said five bodies had been recovered and identified as Malaysians.
The Indian Ocean tourist paradise of the Maldives was hit by tidal waves, inundating low-lying islands, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, officials said.
Residents of the Maldivian capital, Male, contacted by telephone, said most of the capital was flooded.
Indonesian authorities said they expected the death toll to rise as villagers scoured the coast for others missing since waves measuring up to 10 metres (33 feet) swept along northern Aceh province.
“According to villagers whom I talked to, the waves were up to 10 meters in height,” Mustofa Gelanggang, the head of Aceh’s Bireuen district told AFP.
“The wave swept all settlements on the coast, and most houses, on stilts and made of wood, were either swept away or destroyed.
“Some areas were under between two and three meters of water for about two hours,” he said.
Aceh, a region currently closed off to foreign media and aid agencies due to a long-running separatist conflict, saw unconfirmed reports of casualties, with buildings including a mosque and a hotel collapsing.
A reporter from the private ElShinta radio said that the earthquake caused substantial damage in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, including the partial collapse of Kuala Tripa hotel and several shops as well as cracks on the road.
Reports differed on the the exact location and size of the quake.
The US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center initially put the tremor at 8.5 but revised it upwards to 8.9, while the Strasbourg Observatory in France said the tremor hit 8.0 and was located north of Sumatra.
Jakarta’s Meteorology and Geophysics Office put the quake at 6.8 saying it was centered in the Indian Ocean some 149 kilometer (92.38 miles) south of Meulaboh, a town on the western coast of Aceh.
The tremors were felt as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok, some 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) north of the epicenter, where buildings swayed but no serious damage was reported.
Guests of a high-rise hotel reported chandeliers swinging, according to a manager of the city’s Conrad Hotel, while the Charoen Krung Pracha Rak Hospital evacuated all 400 of its patients as a precaution.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 18,000 islands, lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” noted for its volcanic and seismic activity, and is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone regions.
Lying at the collision point of three tectonic plates results in frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as pressure between the massive segments of the Earth’s crust is released.
JAKARTA - More than 2,200 people were killed and hundreds more were missing feared dead Sunday after a huge earthquake off northern Indonesia triggered giant tidal waves and flash floods across western Asia.
The quake, one of the largest in history and measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, struck in the Indian ocean southwest of Aceh province on Sumatra island and unleashed massive destruction throughout the region.
South Asia was the worst hit region, with at least 2,000 deaths reported by Sri Lanka and India.
The Sri Lankan government declared a state of disaster as at least 1,000 people were killed after huge waves battered the country’s eastern and southern coastlines, swamping entire villages.
Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who is in London, was expected to cut short her holiday and return home, a spokesman for her office said, adding she was also appealing for international help.
Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil told the Press Trust of India around 1,000 people were dead in south India.
In Indonesia, government officials said at least 150 had been killed but warned they expected the death toll to rise substantially.
Popular resorts crowded with Christmas revellers in Thailand and Malaysia were also devastated by tsunamis.
At least 99 people were killed and more than 1,300 were wounded in southern Thailand, with many of the deaths occurring in the idyllic tourist islands of Phuket and Phi Phi.
A police officer in Phuket said at least six of the dead were foreigners who drowned on Karon beach on the island’s west coast.
The death toll was likely to rise with several officials reporting over Thai radio and television that beachgoers and villagers had gone missing.
Police said 31 people had died in nearby Krabi on Thailand’s southern mainland, at least 11 were killed on tiny Phi Phi.
In Malaysia, six people drowned and several others were missing after being swept away by a tidal wave in the northwestern resort island of Penang, a popular destination with foreign tourists, police and rescue officials said.
The victims were swimming off the popular Batu Ferringhi beach when the wave hit, a police spokesman told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said five bodies had been recovered and identified as Malaysians.
The Indian Ocean tourist paradise of the Maldives was hit by tidal waves, inundating low-lying islands, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, officials said.
Residents of the Maldivian capital, Male, contacted by telephone, said most of the capital was flooded.
Indonesian authorities said they expected the death toll to rise as villagers scoured the coast for others missing since waves measuring up to 10 metres (33 feet) swept along northern Aceh province.
“According to villagers whom I talked to, the waves were up to 10 meters in height,” Mustofa Gelanggang, the head of Aceh’s Bireuen district told AFP.
“The wave swept all settlements on the coast, and most houses, on stilts and made of wood, were either swept away or destroyed.
“Some areas were under between two and three meters of water for about two hours,” he said.
Aceh, a region currently closed off to foreign media and aid agencies due to a long-running separatist conflict, saw unconfirmed reports of casualties, with buildings including a mosque and a hotel collapsing.
A reporter from the private ElShinta radio said that the earthquake caused substantial damage in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, including the partial collapse of Kuala Tripa hotel and several shops as well as cracks on the road.
Reports differed on the the exact location and size of the quake.
The US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center initially put the tremor at 8.5 but revised it upwards to 8.9, while the Strasbourg Observatory in France said the tremor hit 8.0 and was located north of Sumatra.
Jakarta’s Meteorology and Geophysics Office put the quake at 6.8 saying it was centered in the Indian Ocean some 149 kilometer (92.38 miles) south of Meulaboh, a town on the western coast of Aceh.
The tremors were felt as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok, some 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) north of the epicenter, where buildings swayed but no serious damage was reported.
Guests of a high-rise hotel reported chandeliers swinging, according to a manager of the city’s Conrad Hotel, while the Charoen Krung Pracha Rak Hospital evacuated all 400 of its patients as a precaution.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 18,000 islands, lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” noted for its volcanic and seismic activity, and is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone regions.
Lying at the collision point of three tectonic plates results in frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as pressure between the massive segments of the Earth’s crust is released.
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Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,200 in Asia
JAKARTA, Indonesia - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 3,200 people in five countries.
Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
A police spokesman in Sri Lanka said 1,677 people were killed in that country. Officials in India reported 1,000 dead. More than 400 were reported killed in Indonesia, 158 in Thailand and 25 in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise.
The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.
The effects of Sunday's quake rippled across the region, as towns were crushed by floodwaters and helpless fishermen were swept out to sea.
In Sri Lanka — some 1,000 miles west of the quake's epicenter — police spokesman Rienzie Perera said 1,677 had died. Some 1 million others were displaced by the waters.
"The death toll is going up all the time. Two hours back it was 1,000, one hour back it was 1,300 and now I am told it is climbing to 1,500," said Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the prime minister.
An Associated Press photographer near Colombo, Sri Lanka, counted 24 bodies in a stretch of four miles. Rows of men and women stood on the road asking if anyone had seen their family members.
Monster waves in southern India killed about 1,000 people, mostly in Tamil Nadu state, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said. Beaches were turned into virtual open-air mortuaries, with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore.
"I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, who lives in Andra Pradesh's Kakinada town. "I had never imagined anything like this could happen."
Cabinet Secretary B. K. Chaturvedi told reporters that the Indian air force would drop food packets, medicines and diesel generating sets in the affected areas.
Near the quake's epicenter, in Indonesia, officials said the death toll was 400.
Communications were down in several coastal towns nearest to the undersea quake off the western coast of the island's Aceh Province, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage.
"The ground was shaking for a long time," resident Yayan Zamzani told Jakarta's el-Shinta radio station. "It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years."
Thousands of people abandoned their homes and headed for higher ground after the earthquake. At least one Indonesian village, Lancuk, was nearly destroyed, witnesses said. An Associated Press reporter in the village saw several bodies wedged in trees.
Some 158 people died in popular southern Thailand resorts, the Narenthorn Center of the Public Health Ministry reported. The center said people were swept away in Phuket by a tsunami with 16-foot waves.
More than 1,900 were injured and many others were missing.
Waves reported to be up to 30 feet high crashed into beaches, where thousands of tourists were lazing on the country's renowned white sand beaches when the earthquake struck. Hundreds of bungalows, boats and cars were carried out to sea.
Police and rescue workers in Malaysia said 15 people were killed. Tens of thousands of people were temporarily evacuated from high-rise hotels and apartments in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and other cities after most of peninsular Malaysia felt tremors caused by the quake.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.
The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.
Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
JAKARTA, Indonesia - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 3,200 people in five countries.
Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
A police spokesman in Sri Lanka said 1,677 people were killed in that country. Officials in India reported 1,000 dead. More than 400 were reported killed in Indonesia, 158 in Thailand and 25 in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise.
The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.
The effects of Sunday's quake rippled across the region, as towns were crushed by floodwaters and helpless fishermen were swept out to sea.
In Sri Lanka — some 1,000 miles west of the quake's epicenter — police spokesman Rienzie Perera said 1,677 had died. Some 1 million others were displaced by the waters.
"The death toll is going up all the time. Two hours back it was 1,000, one hour back it was 1,300 and now I am told it is climbing to 1,500," said Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the prime minister.
An Associated Press photographer near Colombo, Sri Lanka, counted 24 bodies in a stretch of four miles. Rows of men and women stood on the road asking if anyone had seen their family members.
Monster waves in southern India killed about 1,000 people, mostly in Tamil Nadu state, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said. Beaches were turned into virtual open-air mortuaries, with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore.
"I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, who lives in Andra Pradesh's Kakinada town. "I had never imagined anything like this could happen."
Cabinet Secretary B. K. Chaturvedi told reporters that the Indian air force would drop food packets, medicines and diesel generating sets in the affected areas.
Near the quake's epicenter, in Indonesia, officials said the death toll was 400.
Communications were down in several coastal towns nearest to the undersea quake off the western coast of the island's Aceh Province, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage.
"The ground was shaking for a long time," resident Yayan Zamzani told Jakarta's el-Shinta radio station. "It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years."
Thousands of people abandoned their homes and headed for higher ground after the earthquake. At least one Indonesian village, Lancuk, was nearly destroyed, witnesses said. An Associated Press reporter in the village saw several bodies wedged in trees.
Some 158 people died in popular southern Thailand resorts, the Narenthorn Center of the Public Health Ministry reported. The center said people were swept away in Phuket by a tsunami with 16-foot waves.
More than 1,900 were injured and many others were missing.
Waves reported to be up to 30 feet high crashed into beaches, where thousands of tourists were lazing on the country's renowned white sand beaches when the earthquake struck. Hundreds of bungalows, boats and cars were carried out to sea.
Police and rescue workers in Malaysia said 15 people were killed. Tens of thousands of people were temporarily evacuated from high-rise hotels and apartments in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and other cities after most of peninsular Malaysia felt tremors caused by the quake.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.
The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.
Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
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- Jack8631
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Reuters is reporting up to 4500 dead. Very sad.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jh ... yID=644282
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jh ... yID=644282
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Tidal Waves Kill More Than 5,600 in Asia
JAKARTA, Indonesia - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 5,600 people in six countries.
Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high that swept across the Bay of Bengal, unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
In Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles west of the epicenter, more than 2,425 people were killed, the prime minister's office said. At least 1,870 died in Indonesia, and 1,130 along the southern coasts of India. At least 198 were confirmed dead in Thailand, 42 in Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh.
But officials expected the death toll to rise dramatically, with hundreds reported missing and all communications cut off to Sumatran towns closest to the epicenter. Hundreds of bodies were found on various beaches along India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, and more were expected to be washed in by the sea, officials said.
The rush of waves brought to sudden disaster to people carrying out their daily activities on the ocean's edge: Sunbathers on the beaches of the Thai resort of Phuket were washed away; a group of 32 Indians — including 15 children — were killed while taking a ritual Hindu bath to mark the full moon day; fishing boats, with their owners clinging to their sides, were picked up by the waves and tossed away.
"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.
The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.
On Sumatra, the quake destroyed dozens of buildings — but as elsewhere, it was the wall of water that followed that caused the most deaths and devastation.
Tidal waves leveled towns in the province of Aceh on Sumatra's northern tip, the region closest to the epicenter. An Associated Press reporter saw bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded. More bodies littered the beaches.
Health ministry official Els Mangundap said 1,876 people had died across the region, including some 1,400 in the Aceh provincial capital, Banda Aceh. Communications to the town had been cut.
Relatives went through lines of bodies wrapped in blankets and sheets, searching for dead loved ones. Aceh province has long been the center of a violent insurgency against the government.
The worst known death toll so far was in Sri Lanka, where a million people were displaced from wrecked villages. Some 20,000 soldiers were deployed in relief and rescue and to help police maintain law and order. Military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake said 2,425 people were dead in areas under government control.
"It is a huge tragedy," said Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the Sri Lankan prime minister. "The death toll is going up all the time." He said the government did not know what was happening in areas of the northeast controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels.
An AP photographer saw two dozen bodies along a four-mile stretch of beach, some of children entangled in the wire mesh used to barricade seaside homes. Other bodies were brought up from the beach, wrapped in sarongs and laid on the road, while rows of men and women lined the roads asking if anyone had seen their relatives.
Around one million people were displaced from their homes, Weerathunga said.
In India, beaches were turned into virtual open-air mortuaries, with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore. Some 800 deaths were reported in Tamil Nadu state, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said. In Andhra Pradesh state, 200 were reported; 102 were killed in Pondicherry.
"I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, who lives in Andra Pradesh's Kakinada town. "I had never imagined anything like this could happen."
The huge waves struck around breakfast time on the beaches of Thailand's beach resorts — probably Asia's most popular holiday destination at this time of year, particularly for Europeans fleeing the winter cold — wiping out bungalows, boats and cars, sweeping away sunbathers and snorkelers, witnesses said.
"Initially we just heard a bang, a really loud bang," Gerrard Donnelly of Britain, a guest at Phuket island's Holiday Inn, told Britain's Sky News. "We initially thought it was a terrorist attack, then the wave came and we just kept running upstairs to get on as high ground as we could."
"People that were snorkeling were dragged along the coral and washed up on the beach, and people that were sunbathing got washed into the sea," said Simon Clark, 29, a photographer from London vacationing on Ngai island.
In the Andaman Sea on Phi Phi island — where "The Beach" starring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed — 200 bungalows at two resorts were swept out to sea.
"I am afraid that there will be a high figure of foreigners missing in the sea and also my staff," said Chan Marongtaechar, owner of the PP Princess Resort and PP Charlie Beach Resort.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.
The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.
Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
JAKARTA, Indonesia - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 5,600 people in six countries.
Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high that swept across the Bay of Bengal, unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
In Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles west of the epicenter, more than 2,425 people were killed, the prime minister's office said. At least 1,870 died in Indonesia, and 1,130 along the southern coasts of India. At least 198 were confirmed dead in Thailand, 42 in Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh.
But officials expected the death toll to rise dramatically, with hundreds reported missing and all communications cut off to Sumatran towns closest to the epicenter. Hundreds of bodies were found on various beaches along India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, and more were expected to be washed in by the sea, officials said.
The rush of waves brought to sudden disaster to people carrying out their daily activities on the ocean's edge: Sunbathers on the beaches of the Thai resort of Phuket were washed away; a group of 32 Indians — including 15 children — were killed while taking a ritual Hindu bath to mark the full moon day; fishing boats, with their owners clinging to their sides, were picked up by the waves and tossed away.
"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.
The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.
On Sumatra, the quake destroyed dozens of buildings — but as elsewhere, it was the wall of water that followed that caused the most deaths and devastation.
Tidal waves leveled towns in the province of Aceh on Sumatra's northern tip, the region closest to the epicenter. An Associated Press reporter saw bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded. More bodies littered the beaches.
Health ministry official Els Mangundap said 1,876 people had died across the region, including some 1,400 in the Aceh provincial capital, Banda Aceh. Communications to the town had been cut.
Relatives went through lines of bodies wrapped in blankets and sheets, searching for dead loved ones. Aceh province has long been the center of a violent insurgency against the government.
The worst known death toll so far was in Sri Lanka, where a million people were displaced from wrecked villages. Some 20,000 soldiers were deployed in relief and rescue and to help police maintain law and order. Military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake said 2,425 people were dead in areas under government control.
"It is a huge tragedy," said Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the Sri Lankan prime minister. "The death toll is going up all the time." He said the government did not know what was happening in areas of the northeast controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels.
An AP photographer saw two dozen bodies along a four-mile stretch of beach, some of children entangled in the wire mesh used to barricade seaside homes. Other bodies were brought up from the beach, wrapped in sarongs and laid on the road, while rows of men and women lined the roads asking if anyone had seen their relatives.
Around one million people were displaced from their homes, Weerathunga said.
In India, beaches were turned into virtual open-air mortuaries, with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore. Some 800 deaths were reported in Tamil Nadu state, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said. In Andhra Pradesh state, 200 were reported; 102 were killed in Pondicherry.
"I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, who lives in Andra Pradesh's Kakinada town. "I had never imagined anything like this could happen."
The huge waves struck around breakfast time on the beaches of Thailand's beach resorts — probably Asia's most popular holiday destination at this time of year, particularly for Europeans fleeing the winter cold — wiping out bungalows, boats and cars, sweeping away sunbathers and snorkelers, witnesses said.
"Initially we just heard a bang, a really loud bang," Gerrard Donnelly of Britain, a guest at Phuket island's Holiday Inn, told Britain's Sky News. "We initially thought it was a terrorist attack, then the wave came and we just kept running upstairs to get on as high ground as we could."
"People that were snorkeling were dragged along the coral and washed up on the beach, and people that were sunbathing got washed into the sea," said Simon Clark, 29, a photographer from London vacationing on Ngai island.
In the Andaman Sea on Phi Phi island — where "The Beach" starring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed — 200 bungalows at two resorts were swept out to sea.
"I am afraid that there will be a high figure of foreigners missing in the sea and also my staff," said Chan Marongtaechar, owner of the PP Princess Resort and PP Charlie Beach Resort.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.
The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.
Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
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Sri Lanka: 2,425 killed. One million considered affected. National emergency declared.
India: 1,800 feared killed in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 400 fishermen feared missing.
Indonesia: 1,873 killed in Sumatra
In Chennai, India, the force of the waves threw cars off the coast road. Several hundred are feared dead in Tamil Nadu state.
Thailand: 400 feared killed. 100 tourists, especially divers missing. The popular tourist resort of Phuket was badly hit. Hundreds of holiday bungalows on the Phi Phi Islands were washed out to sea. Officially 99 confirmed dead and 1,100 injured.
Malaysia: 28 killed, 21 in Penang and 7 in Kedah.
Maldives: 10 killed. Two-thirds of the capital city Malé was flooded. Outlying low-level atolls may be badly affected. State of emergency declared.
Seychelles: 2 killed (unconfirmed report).
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Réunion : Many boats sunk.
India: 1,800 feared killed in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 400 fishermen feared missing.
Indonesia: 1,873 killed in Sumatra
In Chennai, India, the force of the waves threw cars off the coast road. Several hundred are feared dead in Tamil Nadu state.
Thailand: 400 feared killed. 100 tourists, especially divers missing. The popular tourist resort of Phuket was badly hit. Hundreds of holiday bungalows on the Phi Phi Islands were washed out to sea. Officially 99 confirmed dead and 1,100 injured.
Malaysia: 28 killed, 21 in Penang and 7 in Kedah.
Maldives: 10 killed. Two-thirds of the capital city Malé was flooded. Outlying low-level atolls may be badly affected. State of emergency declared.
Seychelles: 2 killed (unconfirmed report).
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Réunion : Many boats sunk.
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Massive waves spawned by quake kill thousands in Asia
Last Updated Sun, 26 Dec 2004 12:01:11 EST
COLOMBO - About 7,000 people are reported dead after a strong earthquake triggered massive tidal waves in Sri Lanka, southern India, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
The 8.9 magnitude quake struck in the Bay of Bengal off the northern coast of Sumatra. At least 1,800 were killed by floods and collapsing buildings on the Indonesian island.
The hardest hit country was Sri Lanka, where officials reported walls of water more than six metres high. Entire villages were swept away, said Marcal Izard of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
More than 3,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka, police said. One Canadian is reported among the victims; that person has not been identified.
The Sri Lankan government has declared a national disaster and appealed for international emergency aid. It's estimated one million people have been left homeless by the tower of water pounding the coast.
In southern India, huge waves devastated a large region. At least 2,400 people are dead and hundreds of fishermen are missing. Yasir Khan, a freelance journalist in New Delhi, said the army is co-ordinating relief efforts.
"Beaches have turned into open-air mortuaries," Khan told CBC Newsworld.
In Madras, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the city's police commissioner says the bodies taken to hospitals are mostly those of young women and children.
More than 40 deaths have been reported in Malaysia, but the toll is expected to go higher. A number of fishing boats from that country were at sea at the time of the quake and have not been heard from.
More than 270 were confirmed dead in Thailand, with at least a third of the fatalities reported in the southern Thai resort of Phuket.
In Phuket, every hotel is normally sold-out this time of year. Tourists on the tiny island say water poured into hotel rooms as high as the third floor, said CBC's Michael McAuliffe.
A tsunami also hit the low-lying Maldives, an island chain 800 kilometres south of India. A government spokesman said two-thirds of the capital is under water.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 8.9-magnitude earthquake was the world's largest in 40 years.
The quake struck at 7:58 a.m. local time Sunday morning and was felt as far away as Singapore, causing high-rise buildings to sway. About two hours later, a series of tidal waves up to 10 metres high hit coastal areas.

Last Updated Sun, 26 Dec 2004 12:01:11 EST
COLOMBO - About 7,000 people are reported dead after a strong earthquake triggered massive tidal waves in Sri Lanka, southern India, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
The 8.9 magnitude quake struck in the Bay of Bengal off the northern coast of Sumatra. At least 1,800 were killed by floods and collapsing buildings on the Indonesian island.
The hardest hit country was Sri Lanka, where officials reported walls of water more than six metres high. Entire villages were swept away, said Marcal Izard of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
More than 3,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka, police said. One Canadian is reported among the victims; that person has not been identified.
The Sri Lankan government has declared a national disaster and appealed for international emergency aid. It's estimated one million people have been left homeless by the tower of water pounding the coast.
In southern India, huge waves devastated a large region. At least 2,400 people are dead and hundreds of fishermen are missing. Yasir Khan, a freelance journalist in New Delhi, said the army is co-ordinating relief efforts.
"Beaches have turned into open-air mortuaries," Khan told CBC Newsworld.
In Madras, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the city's police commissioner says the bodies taken to hospitals are mostly those of young women and children.
More than 40 deaths have been reported in Malaysia, but the toll is expected to go higher. A number of fishing boats from that country were at sea at the time of the quake and have not been heard from.
More than 270 were confirmed dead in Thailand, with at least a third of the fatalities reported in the southern Thai resort of Phuket.
In Phuket, every hotel is normally sold-out this time of year. Tourists on the tiny island say water poured into hotel rooms as high as the third floor, said CBC's Michael McAuliffe.
A tsunami also hit the low-lying Maldives, an island chain 800 kilometres south of India. A government spokesman said two-thirds of the capital is under water.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 8.9-magnitude earthquake was the world's largest in 40 years.
The quake struck at 7:58 a.m. local time Sunday morning and was felt as far away as Singapore, causing high-rise buildings to sway. About two hours later, a series of tidal waves up to 10 metres high hit coastal areas.


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