Mass funerals for thousands in Sri Lanka

MASS funerals of thousands of tsunami victims got underway in Sri Lanka yesterday as volunteers pulled more decomposed corpses from washed out trains, cars and smashed buildings.

The confirmed death toll rose to 12,909 yesterday as burials were carried out along southern coastal areas, with the first in the town of Matara, 160 kilometres south of Colombo.

Mortuaries had no refrigeration to preserve the bodies rapidly piling up.