Tsunami: Death toll and snapshot

UPDATE - More than 15,500 people were killed by tsunami waves triggered by an 9.0 magnitude earthquake in southern Asia on Sunday.

Death toll in each country

India
5697*

Indonesia
4491

Malaysia
44

Myanmar
10

Sri Lanka
4891** - more than 750,000 affected

Thailand
431

TOTAL 15,566 

These figures are preliminary and in some cases rough estimates by local officials.


* The figure includes an estimated 3000 feared killed in India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.


** This does not include at least 1500 thought to be dead in Tamil rebel-controlled territory of Sri Lanka.


In addition, about 1,300 people were missing in India's Andhra Pradesh, 35 in Malaysia and 10 people were feared dead in the Maldives.


The numbers are based on comments by official sources and local media.

Background

* 4,891 people killed in Sri Lanka; more than 750,000 affected

* At least 5,500 people killed in India, officials and media say

* Tsunami kills 4,491 in Indonesia

* A wall of water up to 10 metres (30 ft) high triggered by the earthquake sweeps into Indonesia, over the coast of Sri Lanka and India and southern Thailand

* Survivors huddle in shelters, many too scared to sleep in case a tsunami strikes again.

* US scientists measure earthquake at magnitude 9.0, making it the largest in 40 years and the fourth-largest since 1900

* US officials who detected the massive earthquake say they tried frantically to warn that a deadly wall of water was surging across the Indian Ocean.

* United Nations warns of epidemics within days unless health systems in Asia can cope with the destruction.

* Red Cross appeals for $6.5 million emergency aid

* Pope John Paul appeals for swift international help to the people of Asia

Quotes

* Charles McCreery, director of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's centre in Honolulu, which detected the earthquake and coming tsunami: "We tried to do what we could. We don't have contacts in our address book for anybody in that part of the world." 

* Indian vegetable hawker N. Arasu: "We are too scared to sleep. What if the sea rises again and takes us away in our sleep?"

* Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga: "We are not well equipped to deal with a disaster of this magnitude because we have never known a disaster like this."

* Indian fisherman Chellappa, 55: "I heard an eerie sound that I have never heard before. It was a high pitched sound followed by a deafening roar. I told everyone to run for their life."

* Narasamma, Indian fisherman's wife: "I have been waiting for my husband and brother since yesterday. Around 40 people from my village have not come back from the sea. I am not sure they will come back as I can see wrecked boats floating in the water."

* Stephen Dicks, 42, Australian tourist: "I was sitting on the first floor of a bar, not far from the beach, watching cricket. Suddenly all these people came screaming from the beach. I looked around and saw a massive wall of water rushing down the street.

It completed wiped out the ground floor of my bar, and thank God I was upstairs."

* Mustofa, mayor in Sumatra: "We are making preparations for the funerals. Officials are being asked to look for coffins. I am hoping there are still enough coffins available."

* British foreign secretary Jack Straw: "For all the huge advances in the control of our lives through science and technology an earthquake on this scale is truly humbling as well as profoundly tragic for everyone involved."

* Boree Carlsson, Swedish hotel worker on Thailand's Phuket island: "As I was standing there, a car actually floated into the lobby and overturned because the current was so strong."

* Bustami, a resident of Lhokseumawe in Indonesia: "The weather was fine with no clouds, there was no warning and suddenly the sea water just hit the city. In some parts the water was up to chest level."

* A hotel worker in Thailand's Phang Nga resort: " Before the wave hit, I saw sea water fell back around 100 metres from the beach and some minutes later there was a three-storey high wave moving toward the beach and everything collapsed."