Asia devastated as over 10,000 killed, missing
Asia devastated as over 10,000 killed, missing
Agencies, Colombo
The world's biggest earthquake in 40 years hit South and Southeast Asia on Sunday, unleashing a tsunami that crashed into Sri Lanka and India and swamped tourist isles in Thailand and the Maldives, killing more than 10,000 people.
A wall of water up to 10 meters high triggered by the 8.9 magnitude underwater earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra caused death, chaos and devastation.
"Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before," Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.
Boxing Day brought grief and disaster to Asia this year; exactly on the same day last year, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the ancient Silk Road city of Bam in Iran, killing more than 30,000 people.
Sri Lanka, where officials put the death toll at 3,225, appealed for emergency international aid. One million people, or 5 percent of the population, were affected, officials said. The death toll in India was about 2,000. The disaster claimed 4,185 lives in Indonesia and the toll may rise further.
Pope John Paul said the enormous tragedy saddened Christmas.
Two-thirds of the Maldives capital, Male, was flooded and officials voiced anxiety for the fate of dozens of low-lying, palm-ringed coral atolls crowded with tourists from around the world for the Christmas holiday season.
India feared a devastating toll along its southeastern coast.
In the state of Tamil Nadu alone, a government official said at least 1,625 had been killed. Rescuers were searching for hundreds of missing fishermen. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put the armed forces on alert.
The earthquake of magnitude 8.9 as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey struck at 7:59 a.m (7:59 a.m. in Jakarta) off Sumatra and swung north with multiple tremors into the Andaman islands.
In Thailand, at least 310 people had been killed and more than 5,000 injured, officials said. In Malaysia, at least 29 people were drowned and many others were missing, officials said.
In popular holiday islands off southern Thailand, emergency workers rescued about 70 Thai and foreign divers from the famed Emeral Cave and several dozen were found and evacuated from around other islands, officials said.
Two Thais were killed at Emeral cave, a major attraction for divers who have to swim underwater to its tiny beach and water illuminated by sunshine pouring through a hole in the roof.
The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1964, said Julie Martinez, geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.
"It is multiple earthquakes along the same faultline."
It was the fifth-largest earthquake since 1900, she said.
"These big earthquakes, when they occur in shallow water, ... basically slosh the ocean floor ... and it's as if you're rocking water in the bathtub and that wave can travel basically throughout the ocean," USGS geophysicist Bruce Presgrave said.
In Sri Lanka, thousands fled the worst tsunami in living memory, scrambling to higher ground for fear of another wave.
"The army and the navy have sent rescue teams; we have deployed over four choppers and half the navy's eastern fleet to look for survivors," military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake said.
The worst-hit area appeared to be the tourist region of the south and east where beach hotels were inundated or swept away.
"Our naval base in Trincomalee is underwater and right now we are trying to manage the situation there while rescuing people," said navy spokesman Jayantha Perera.
In the low-lying Maldives, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was to declare a national disaster in the archipelago whose coral atolls are a magnet for tourists from around the world, said chief government spokesman Ahmed Shaheed.
"The damage is considerable," Shaheed said. "The island is only about three feet (one meter) above sea level and a wave of water four feet (1.3 meters) high swept over us."
The international airport was unusable, he said.
"It is a very bad situation. It is terrible," Shaheed said. "As you know it is the peak tourist season. 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."
The world's worst tsunami in recent history struck on July 17, 1998, when three waves ripped through Papua New Guinea's northwest coast, killing 2,500.
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