Tsunami toll tops 163 000

2005-01-13 20:44

Jakarta - The death toll from the earthquake and tsunamis that devastated Indian Ocean coastlines last month rose to 163 338 on Thursday as Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka reported new deaths.

Indonesia was hardest-hit by the December 26 quake and tsunamis, with 110 229 confirmed deaths and 12 132 people missing as of Thursday, the social affairs ministry said.

In Sri Lanka government figures issued on Thursday showed the toll had risen by 11 to 30 893 while the number of those reported missing had come down by 50 to 6 038.

In neighbouring India, more than 300 more people were confirmed dead on the Andaman islands, pushing the official death toll to 10 672 with 5 711 still missing and feared dead.

The death toll in Thailand stood at 5 313, but the number of missing continued to slip, down by 91 names on Thursday to 3 254, including 1 063 foreigners.

Myanmar's Prime Minister Soe Win has said 59 people were killed in the tsunamis and more than 3 200 left homeless. This was down from the UN's estimated 90.

At least 82 people were killed and another 26 were missing in the Maldives, a government spokesperson said.

Sixty-eight people were dead in Malaysia, most of them in Penang, according to police, while Bangladesh reported two deaths.

Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 298 people were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya.

The US geological survey said the earthquake west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9.0 on the Richter scale - making it the largest quake worldwide in four decades.

- AFP