One of the world's most powerful earthquakes in years rocked northern Indonesia on Sunday and launched tidal waves that swamped villages and seaside resorts across Asia, killing more than 550 people in five countries. Some 300 were reported killed in Sri Lanka, 136 in India, 94 in Indonesia, 20 in Thailand and seven in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise. The U.S. Geological Survey said a magnitude 8.9 quake - one capable of massive damage - struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra at 8 a.m. Sunday. The USGS earlier said the quake was magnitude-8.5.
Soon after it hit, immense waves or tsunamis crashed into several countries, and aftershocks in the magnitude-7 range were seen, the USGS said, raising the possibility of a catastrophic regional death toll. Waves crashed into coastal villages over a wide area of Sri Lanka - some 1,000 miles west of the quake's epicenter - killing some 300 people and displacing thousands of others, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake. Parts of the northeastern districts of Muttur and Trincomalee were inundated by waves as high as 20 feet, said D. Rodrigo, a Muttur district official. "The police station in Muttur is under water and the area is badly affected," police spokesman Rienzie Perera said. "It is a very tragic situation." He said over 100,000 people have been affected in Sri Lanka.
At least 136 people were killed in India, and hundreds of fishermen were missing at sea, officials said. The biggest toll was reported from Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, whose beaches turned into virtual open mortuaries with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore. At least 100 bodies were found on various beaches in Madras, said R. Natraj, the city police chief. Don Blakeman, an earthquake analyst with the USGS, said large tidal waves frequently follow quakes like the one seen in Indonesia, noting that a powerful quake in Alaska four decades ago caused waves that killed people as far away as Japan. He told The Associated Press that aftershocks are another concern. "We do expect large aftershocks after a large earthquake like this."
At least 94 people were killed in Indonesia's Aceh province, hospital and local officials said. Bireun district head Mustofa Glanggang told The Associated Press that 50 people were killed in Bireun district, and 35 bodies were brought to Cut Meutia Hospital in the northern city of Lhokseumawe, an official there said. Nine others were killed in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, witnesses told a local radio station. Communications were down in several coastal towns facing the epicenter of the undersea quake off the western coast of Aceh, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage in the region. "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."
Twenty people died and many were missing in popular southern Thailand resorts, said Sorajak Chusaeng, of the Narenthorn Center of the Public Health Ministry. The center also reported that people were swept away in Phuket by a tsunami with waves surging as high as 16 feet. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said a powerful earthquake jolted a wide area of that country early Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake was reported to be a magnitude 7.3. Police in Malaysia said seven people were killed in tidal waves.
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. In Colombo, the Seismological Department said that they believe the tidal waves in Sri Lanka were caused by earthquakes earlier Sunday in the Southeast Asia. "We are not 100 percent sure, but this is our initial finding," S. Premalal, a Seismological Department officer said. 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. |
Sri Lanka on Monday took control of the strategic Tamil Tiger held Sampur town in the Trincomalee district. The town occupied by the LTTE since the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) has been the theatre of hostilities since August 24. In recent days, the Sri Lankan military has repeatedly complained that the Tiger military base at Sampur has been targeting the main naval base in Trincomalee as well as causing turmoil in the Muslim-dominated Muttur town leaving scores dead and thousands homeless. 
PARIS - Seventeen employees of a French charity found dead in northeastern Sri Lanka at the weekend were all executed by gunfire, the group confirmed Tuesday, demanding that those responsible be severely punished. A team sent to the scene by Action Contre la Faim (
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels (LTTE) have halted an offensive on the eastern town of