Home>News Center>World
         
 

Tidal waves kill more than 3,800 in Asia
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-26 20:28

The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 3,800 people in six countries.

Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

A police spokesman in Sri Lanka said 1,677 people were killed in that country. Officials in India reported 1,100 dead. More than 400 were reported killed in Indonesia, 168 in Thailand and 28 in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise.


An unidentified man salvages his household items after they were washed away by tidal waves at the Marina Beach in Madras, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004. [AP]

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.

Devastating reverberations rippled across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, as towns were crushed by floodwaters and helpless fishermen were swept out to sea.

In Sri Lanka — some 1,000 miles west of the quake's epicenter — police spokesman Rienzie Perera said 1,677 had died. Some 1 million others were displaced.

"The death toll is going up all the time. Two hours back it was 1,000, one hour back it was 1,300 and now I am told it is climbing to 1,500," said Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the prime minister.

An Associated Press photographer near Colombo, Sri Lanka, counted 24 bodies in a stretch of four miles. Rows of men and women stood on the road asking if anyone had seen their family members.

In India, beaches were turned into virtual open-air mortuaries, with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore. Some 800 deaths were reported in Tamil Nadu state, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said. In Andhra Pradesh state, 200 were reported; 102 were killed in Pondicherry.

"I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, who lives in Andra Pradesh's Kakinada town. "I had never imagined anything like this could happen."

Cabinet Secretary B. K. Chaturvedi told reporters that the Indian air force would drop food packets, medicines and diesel generating sets in the affected areas.

Near the quake's epicenter, in Indonesia, officials said the death toll was 408.

Communications were down in several coastal towns nearest to the undersea quake off the western coast of the island's Aceh Province, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage.

"The ground was shaking for a long time," resident Yayan Zamzani told Jakarta's el-Shinta radio station. "It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years."

Thousands of people abandoned their homes and headed for higher ground after the earthquake. At least one Indonesian village, Lancuk, was nearly destroyed, witnesses said. An Associated Press reporter in the village saw several bodies wedged in trees.

Some 168 people died in popular southern Thailand resorts, the Narenthorn Center of the Public Health Ministry reported. The center said people were swept away in Phuket by a tsunami with 16-foot waves. More than 1,900 were injured and many others were missing.

Waves reported to be up to 30 feet high crashed into beaches, where thousands of tourists were lazing on the country's renowned white sand beaches when the earthquake struck. Hundreds of bungalows, boats and cars were carried out to sea.

Police and rescue workers in Malaysia said 28 people were killed. More than 1,000 homes across numerous fishing villages were destroyed as waves roared into the coastline, leaving hundreds of families homeless, disaster officials said.

"This is a disaster that our country has never faced before in history," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.

The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.

Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.



 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Tidal waves kill more than 3,800 in Asia

 

   
 

Stable price increases expected in 2005

 

   
 

Fiscal income growth to decline

 

   
 

Pakistan, China to set up free trade area

 

   
 

Revision of death penalty system urged

 

   
 

Millions celebrate Christmas across globe

 

   
  Millions celebrate Christmas across globe
   
  Judge creates election twist in Ukraine
   
  Ukraine candidates clash over west in final appeals
   
  Euro rises to fresh high vs. dollar
   
  Musharraf assassinators convicted
   
  Explosion rips Baghdad as Rumsfeld leaves
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 亚洲成av人片在线观看无码不卡| 国产成人午夜福利在线观看视频| 中文字幕精品一区二区| 最新国产精品精品视频| 亚洲男人的天堂在线播放| 精品久久久久久无码中文野结衣| 国产zzjjzzjj视频全免费| 鲁啊鲁啊鲁在线视频播放| 国产精品99久久不卡| 亚洲三级在线看| 狠狠ady精品| 国产女人和拘做受视频免费| 7777久久亚洲中文字幕| 日本亚洲中午字幕乱码| 亚洲av第一网站久章草| 欧美日韩性猛交xxxxx免费看| 国产91在线播放动漫| 2021国产麻豆剧传媒剧情最新| 成品煮伊在2021一二三久| 久久精品国产亚洲精品| 欧美军同性videosbest| 十八禁视频在线观看免费无码无遮挡骂过| 香港国产特级一级毛片| 国产麻豆91网在线看| 久久www视频| 欧美日韩国产在线观看一区二区三区| 伊人久久久大香线蕉综合直播| 精品国产乱码久久久久久1区2区 | 成人av电影网站| 中文字幕永久免费视频| 日本一区中文字幕日本一二三区视频| 亚洲熟女精品中文字幕| 狠狠躁日日躁夜夜躁2022麻豆| 国产乱码精品一区三上| 99久久精品美女高潮喷水| 好大好硬好爽免费视频| 一本色道久久88| 成人一级黄色大片| 东方aⅴ免费观看久久av| 日韩午夜中文字幕电影| 九色综合久久综合欧美97|