COLOMBO, 27 December 2004 — More than 12,000 people were killed, thousands more were missing and millions were affected after a powerful earthquake yesterday triggered giant tidal waves that slammed into coasts across Southern Asia, swallowing villages and wreaking death and devastation on seaside resorts.
The quake, the fifth largest ever recorded measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, unleashing tsunamis that hit Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar and Malaysia.
Terrifying walls of water up to 10 meters (33 feet) high were reported in many areas, roaring ashore with bewildering speed, sweeping people off beaches, flattening hotels and homes, uprooting trees and overturning cars.
In Indonesia at least 4,300 people were killed as the country took the full force of a huge earthquake and tidal waves that swallowed entire coastal villages, the Health Ministry said late yesterday.
Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared the earthquake a “national disaster”, adding that a relief effort would be coordinated from the Sumatran city of Medan.
The quake, the most powerful for 40 years, came a year to the day after a temblor in the Iranian city of Bam killed over 30,000 people.
Large numbers of children were reported to be among the victims in India and Sri Lanka, along with many foreign tourists who had flocked to idyllic resorts in Southeast Asia for the Christmas holidays.
South Asia was the worst hit region, with nearly 7,200 deaths reported across Sri Lanka and India and thousands missing.
The Sri Lankan government also declared a state of disaster as at least 4,400 people, including many children and the elderly, were killed on the island.
Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who is in London, was expected to cut short her holiday and return home, a spokesman for her office said, adding she was also appealing for international help.
Indian officials said at least 2,700 people were killed and more than 700 feared dead across south India and the Andaman Islands.
There were scenes of mayhem in Tamil Nadu state, where scores of villages were under water, local television footage showed bodies being loaded into ambulances. In Madras, the morgues at government hospitals were overflowing with bodies, witnesses said.
Thai officials said meanwhile at least 310 people were killed by the waves and more than 5,000 injured in the south of the country.
The nation’s top beach attractions were among the worst-hit as waves swept scores of people out to sea, drowned snorkelers, sank boats and shattered buildings along the coast. The popular resort of Phuket and the idyllic island of Phi Phi were devastated by the huge waters.
Monster waves crashed down onto beaches and crushed holiday bungalows after the first of a series of waves hit just before 10 a.m. (0300 GMT), according to officials and rescuers.
Phuket’s major beach town, Patong, was flooded and all shops, kiosks and hotels along the beach were damaged. Some were washed away by the waters that carried away debris and tourist “tuk-tuk” taxis.
Police said up to 50 people were killed on Phi Phi, 40 kilometers off Thailand’s western Andaman coast, where huts on the exposed beach were swept away.
British tourists on the tiny island of Ngai said holidaymakers were given no chance when the tsunamis struck.
“Suddenly this huge wave came, rushing down the beach, destroying everything in its wake,” Londoner Simon Clark said.
“People that were snorkeling were dragged along the coral and washed up on the beach, and people that were sunbathing got washed into the sea.”
In Malaysia, 42 people, including many elderly and children, were drowned and many others were missing after tidal waves hit two resort islands, officials said.
On the Indian Ocean tourist destination of the Maldives, a British tourist and 14 other people died after tidal waves lashed the archipelago.
The unidentified British tourist died of a heart attack as the tidal waves hit his resort, an official said, adding that 50 “water cabanas” built on stilts had been washed away.
Residents contacted said at least 14 people, including two children, had been killed on three central atolls that were the worst affected.
The Maldivian government said there were several casualties, but gave no details.
Governments and aid organizations around the world offered messages of sympathy and scrambled to pledge aid to nations affected by the tragedy.
With the death toll rising inexorably, authorities offered immediate help in terms of food, shelter and medicines.
Echoing pleas by Asian leaders, Pope John Paul II urged the international community to rush aid to the affected populations.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf called for “swift and concerted” international efforts, and the Foreign Ministry said it would send a consignment of relief goods comprising tents, medicines and water to Sri Lanka.
The European Commission said it was providing immediate emergency aid of three million euros ($4 million) for victims to meet “initial vital needs,” and that more substantial aid would be provided later.
“The needs are enormous,” EU development and humanitarian aid commissioner Louis Michel said.
The international Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations launched a five million euro ($6.7 million) relief aid appeal.
Reports differed on the exact location and size of the quake.
The US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center initially put the tremor at 8.5 but revised it upward to 8.9, while the Strasbourg Observatory in France said the tremor hit 8.1 and was located north of Sumatra.
Jakarta’s Meteorology and Geophysics Office put the quake at 6.8 saying it was centered in the Indian Ocean about 149 kilometers (92.38 miles) south of Meulaboh, a town on the western coast of Aceh.
The tremors were felt as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok, about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) north of the epicenter, where buildings swayed but no serious damage was reported.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 18,000 islands, lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” noted for its volcanic and seismic activity, and is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone regions.
Lying at the collision point of three tectonic plates results in frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as pressure between the massive segments of the Earth’s crust is released.
African nations too began clearing Indian Ocean beaches at risk from killer waves.
Authorities in Kenya, Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles and Somalia yesterday asked people to evacuate areas on their Indian Ocean shores.
