JUST FOR FORUM USERS INFORMATION. THE CF FORUM COLLATED REPORTS WHICH APPEAR BELOW MAY WELL HAVE BEEN AMONG THE FIRST PUBLICALLY PUBLISHED ANYWHERE.
UPDATE: the death toll 24 hrs after the initial quake is 14,000 and counting.
Tragically 48hrs after the quake, the death toll is 25,000 and counting.
Day 3: 40,000 and counting.
Update: death toll on Jan 9 - 153,000 !
BANKGOK, Dec 26 Reuters - Tsunamis triggered by a huge earthquake under the Indian Ocean crashed into a tourist area of southern Thailand today, killing at least 55 people and leaving more than 700 hurt or missing, officials said.
The government ordered the immediate evacuation of the stricken areas, which included beaches on the resort island of Phuket popular with Western and Asian tourists and at the height of their season.
It sent helicopters to Koh Phi Phi, another island popular with tourists, and other smaller islands in the Andaman Sea to assess the damage there.
The tsunamis, triggered by an earthquake measured at 8.9 magnitude by the US Geological Survey, which called it the fifth biggest earthquake since 1900, struck the mainland provinces of Phang Nga, Krabi and Satun as well as Phuket.
Stunned Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra called the tsunamis unprecedented after officials reported one wave 5 to 10 metres high hit hotel-lined beaches on Phuket, which appeared to be the worst hit.
Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before,'' he said. Government officials said 29 people were killed on Phuket, 15 in Krabi, 10 in Phang Nga and one in Satun. It was not immediately known how many of them were foreigners, but on Phuket, at least tourist was killed and four or five more may have been swept out to sea. I got a report that tourists playing in the water were swept out to sea and four to five tourists were reported missing,’’ Phuket governor Udomsak Asvarangkul told Reuters.
One foreigner was known to be among the dead in Krabi.
Thai television showed scenes of devastation on one Phuket beach. Store fronts were damaged and cars and motorcycles were strewn around after being tossed about by the powerful waves.
A Thai man carried one elderly Western man in swimming trunks to safety on his back, ITV showed.
The wave knocked out electricity supplies in Phang Nga, provincial governor Samacha Bhothithavorn told Reuters.
The tsunamis may have killed as many as 1,500 people in Sri Lanka, southern India and Indonesia. The earthquake was off Indonesia’s northern province of Aceh.
COLOMBO, Dec 26 AFP - At least 1,000 people were killed and many more were missing in Sri Lanka as tsunami waves smashed into the island, Prime Minister’s top aide, Lalith Weeratunga, said.
Police reports from the devastated coastal areas placed the fatalities at a minimum of 1,000 dead, said Weeratunga who is the top civil servant in Premier Mahina Rajapakse’s office which is coordinating the rescue and relief effort.
We have police reports which place the death toll at a minimum of 1,000,'' Weeratunga said. We don’t have the full picture from some places which have been cut off.’’
NEW DELHI, Dec 26 Reuters - At least 390 people have been killed after a tsunami hit India’s southern coast today, a federal cabinet minister and officials said.
``There are at least 350 deaths in Tamil Nadu. There are requests from the Tamil Nadu government for helicopters to drop food,’’ Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, deputed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to oversee rescue work, told Reuters.
He said he had asked oil company officials to meet him and give an assessment of the situation.
COLOMBO, Dec 26 Reuters - Two-thirds of the Maldives capital was flooded today after a series of tsunami waves triggered by an earthquake swamped the low-lying Indian Ocean archipelago, the chief government spokesman said.
The damage is considerable,'' Ahmed Shaheed told Reuters. The island is only about three feet (one metre) above sea level and a wave of water four feet (1.3 metres) high swept over us.’’
Male, which is 2 km long and 800 metres wide and home to 75,000 people, is bursting at the seams.
The streets of white-washed houses are heavily built up, living conditions often cramped and areas of communal open space sparse for the country’s 300,000 people.
It is a very bad situation. It is terrible,'' Shaheed told Reuters by telephone after a tour of the capital. He said the international airport was unusable, adding that President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom would shortly declare a national disaster and appeal for international assistance. In a recent interview with Reuters, Gayoom said rising sea levels posed a great threat to the archipelago, a favourite tourist destination. We still face the threat of sea level rise,’’ he said. There is encroachment of the sea on many islands, there is erosion of our beaches. As you know it is the peak tourist season,’’ Shaheed said.
``We are trying to get reports from those areas. The whole of the Maldives is a tourist area so we are just hoping and praying.’’
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 26 Reuters - At least eight people were killed after a tsunami triggered by an earthquake struck a popular beach in Malaysia’s northern island of Penang today, officials said.
Many fishermen were feared missing after the wave hit the western coast of the island, search and rescue officials said.
Many fishing boats had gone out to sea this morning and not all have returned. There are still some out there,'' Penang Civil Defence Director Mohd Johari Mohd Taufik told Reuters. He said the eight who died at the Batu Ferringhi beach were mostly picnickers who were swept out to sea. There may be some who are still missing,’’ he added.
Police said 30 others were injured.
The island is popular with Westerners and local visitors, and hotels in the area are normally packed during the peak of the holiday season.