Sri Lanka warns death toll still set to rise

The Sri Lankan government today said that rescue workers recovered no corpses in the past 12 hours, but cautioned that the island’s current death toll of 30,196 was not likely to be the final figure.

The National Disaster Management Centre said its rescue teams found 154 people out of the 3,846 listed as missing, but no bodies in the last 12 hours.

“The reports we are receiving do not mention any new body found,” said Lal Liyanarachchi.

“But let us not take this as a final figure,” said Liyanarachchi, adding that there are areas where huge rubble piles are yet to be removed mainly in the east, the worst affected.

The centre listed 834,849 people as displaced by the tsunami. They were housed in 789 relief centres.