Grieving families hunt for bodies

WAILING relatives scrambled over hundreds of bodies piled in a Sri Lankan hospital yesterday, searching for loved ones as the tsunami death toll soared above 12,000 on the island.

In the ravaged southern port town of Galle, a trail of devastation emerged as flood waters receded.

Upturned buses blocked streets, contents of entire homes peppered thick muddy silt and residents appeared too shocked to start cleaning up. Flood waters deposited mounds of garbage and even a bus in the centre of the town’s ruined cricket pitch.