14,000 dead across Asia in tidal wave devastation

Rescuers scoured waterlogged coasts across Asia today after an earthquake of epic power struck below the Indian Ocean and sent huge walls of water crashing onto beaches in at least nine countries, killing more than 14,000 people and leaving millions homeless.

The death toll along southern shores of Asia – and as far west as Somalia on the African coast, where nine were reported killed – increased steadily as authorities sorted out a far-flung disaster caused by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the world’s strongest in 40 years.