Asia tragedy death toll passes 3,000

The death toll in the massive south-east Asian earthquake and tidal wave tragedy has passed more than 3,000 people today.

The most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that swamped coastlines across Asia.

Tourists, fishermen, hotels, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centred off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where at least 408 people were killed by floods and collapsing buildings, officials said.

But the scope of the disaster – affecting Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Thailand – became apparent only after waves as high as 20ft crashed into coastal areas throughout the Indian Ocean and Andaman Sea.

In Sri Lanka – some 1,000 miles west of the epicentre – a senior official in the prime minister’s office said more than 1,500 had been killed and one million affected by the surging wall of water.

Indian officials said that as many as 1,000 people had been killed along the southern coast. Another 158 were confirmed dead in Thailand, and 25 in Malaysia. Thousands of people were missing, many of them fishermen at sea, and rescue workers struggled against floodwaters to find and evacuate stranded victims.

The death toll climbed throughout the day and was expected to grow even higher as more bodies were discovered. 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 US Geological Survey’s website recorded the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra, 1,000 miles northwest of Jakarta. It was centred 25 miles below the seabed. Aftershocks struck in the magnitude 7 range.

The earthquake was the world’s fifth most powerful since 1900 and the strongest since a 9.2 temblor rocked Alaska in 1964, US earthquake experts said.

The force of it shook unusually far afield, causing buildings to sway hundreds of miles away, from Singapore to the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, and in Bangladesh, hours after the region’s Christian communities had finished Christmas celebrations.

Initial damage centred on the Indonesian province of Aceh on northern Sumatra. Dozens of buildings were destroyed, but as elsewhere, much of the death toll appeared to come from onrushing floodwaters.

Towns nearest the epicentre were levelled by tidal waves, which killed at least 408 people and left bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded, officials and witnesses said.

A spokesman for Indonesian state-owned Garuda Airlines said Banda Aceh’s airport was flooded and planes were unable to land.

In Sri Lanka, the government called the events a national disaster and appealed for emergency relief.

Holidays turned to disaster in southern Thailand, which welcomes hundreds of thousands of tourists to its southern beaches during the Christmas season. At least 158 people died, 1,900 others were injured and many more – reportedly including foreign tourists on diving excursions – were missing, authorities said.

The owner of two resorts on Phi Phi island – where the Hollywood blockbuster “The Beach”, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was filmed – said that 200 of his bungalows were swept out to sea, along with some of his employees and customers.

“I am afraid that there will be a high figure of foreigners missing in the sea, and also my staff,” said Chan Marongtaechar, who was in the Thai capital of Bangkok at the time. He estimated that 700 people could have been on the beach.

Chan said that his employees had told him by telephone that they were “very scared, they want to leave the island”, but that the waters were too rough for boats.

In India, the navy was evacuating people in low-lying areas of Andhra Pradesh state, but casualties were lower than they could have been because some ports were closed for the weekend.

Among those killed in the state were 32 people – 15 of them children – who had gone into the sea for a Hindu religious bath.

In Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, 100 bodies were found washed ashore on beaches, said the city’s fire services chief, SK Dogra.

At least 150 bodies were recovered from Cuddalore, another town in the state, said regional police superintendent K Panniselvan. Another 14 people died in Kerala state and 14 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

High waves and floods inundated the Maldives, injuring one Italian tourist and forcing the airport to close, an official said.

In Malaysia, authorities closed some beaches to the public after 25 people were swept away from beaches near the northern city of Penang. The victims were believed to be mainly tourists and included some foreigners, a police spokesman said.

Officials received reports that some vessels capsized at sea, but there were no further details, said Low Kong Chiew, director of the state government’s Seismological Division.

Sumatra is separated from the western coast of peninsular Malaysia by a narrow strait.