Tsunami death toll rises to 157,000

Published January 12, 2005

JAKARTA, Jan 11: The number of people killed when an earthquake and tsunamis devastated Indian Ocean coastlines on Dec 26 rose to 157,576 Tuesday as Indonesia added another 1,200 to its death toll.

Hardest-hit Indonesia has now reported 105,262 fatalities, with 10,046 people still missing, the social affairs ministry said. The ministry said the largest death toll was in the almost completely destroyed town of Meulaboh on the remote north west coast of Sumatra island were 28,251 people died.

Aid workers on the ground say many more bodies are yet to be collected. Another seven were added to the number killed in Sri Lanka, taking the toll to 30,725 confirmed dead, the government said. The number of people reported missing jumped from 4,939 to 5,903, latest government figures showed Monday.

In neighbouring India, the official toll stood 10,136 with 5,630 still missing and feared dead. The death toll in Thailand on Monday dropped by two to 5,303. But 3,396 people remain missing more than two weeks after the tsunami.

Myanmar's Prime Minister Soe Win said Thursday 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 spokesman said. Sixty-eight people were dead in Malaysia, according to police, while 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 298 people were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was the largest world wide in four decades. -AFP

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