Death toll over 127 000
2005-01-02 11:55
Jakarta - The confirmed number killed in the massive earthquake and tidal waves that hit Indian Ocean shorelines a week ago passed 127 000 on Sunday, as more bodies were recovered in Sri Lanka.
Indonesia has borne the brunt of last Sunday's catastrophe, with a health ministry official putting the country's dead at 79 940 with entire coastal villages disappearing under the wall of water.
But this could go up substantially. The health ministry cautioned that there could be 100 000 deaths in Aceh and North Sumatra, but has given up on delivering exact numbers because the death toll continues to rise so quickly.
UN emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland said the true figure across Asia may never be known.
"What we see is that the figures may be approaching 150 000 dead. The vast majority of those are in Indonesia and Aceh, which is the least assessed area because of logistical constraints," Egeland told reporters.
"It may therefore rise further," he said. "We will never, ever have the absolute, definite figure because there are many nameless fishermen and villages that have just gone, and we have no chance of finding out how many they were."
In Sri Lanka, 29 729 were confirmed killed by the tidal waves, while more than 16 000 people were injured, the president's office said.
The number of people missing was revised down from nearly 14,000 Saturday to 5 240 Sunday, but there was no immediate explanation for this.
The death toll in India hit 12 829, although this includes 3 874 people the government says are missing presumed dead.
In Thailand the death toll was Sunday revised down slightly to 4 798 as several bodies had been double counted. Some 2 402 foreigners were listed among those who died, official data showed.
The number of missing fell to 6 384 from 6541 after people were traced.
In Myanmar at least 90 people were killed, according to the UN, but the real toll was expected to be far higher.
At least 75 people were killed and another 42 were confirmed missing in the tourist paradise of the Maldives, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said.
Sixty-six people were dead in Malaysia, most of them in Penang, police said.
In Bangladesh a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized in large waves, officials said.
Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 132 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.
Death toll
Indonesia: 79 940
Sri Lanka: 29 729
*India: 12 829
Thailand: 4 798
Myanmar: 90
Maldives: 75
Malaysia: 66
Bangladesh: 2
Somalia 132
Tanzania 10
Kenya 1
Total: 127 672
* India figure includes 3 874 listed as missing presumed dead.