South Asian Death Toll Surpasses 18,000

Sri Lanka faced the largest damage next to Indonesia and India announced that the number of deaths in the regions under its government control reached 5,017.

2,000 people have reportedly lost their lives in the regions currently being controlled by Tamil guerillas and the total number of dead in the nation has been increased to 7,017.

The Sri Lanka National Meteorology Center announced that they have identified new tremors near the island of Sumatra and that small tidal waves were on the way. About 25,000 soldiers participated in rescue activities aimed at the coastal regions.

Indian police report that the number of deaths has grown to 3,000 on the islands of Andaman and Nicobar. Televised news reports say about 3,000 people are also missing and that there is concern that the number of deaths is increasing. More than 6,000 people are estimated to have died in India because of the earthquake and tidal waves.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra disclosed that the giant waves led to 700 deaths in their country. Thai Major General Kokiet Wongworachart reported that 35 of the people that lost their lives on the island of Phuket were tourists.

Press releases have said the tourists who died or are missing were citizens of South Korea, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, Chile, and the US.

A grandson of the King of Thailand, Bhumi Jensen, was announced to be one of the missing in Phuket., but the 21 year old’s body was later found dead and identified as Bumi, whose father is a US citizen. About 1,000 tourists gathered in front of the Phuket Municipality building to demand aid from authorities.

Rescue activities in Indonesia continue although 5,000 people have already been found dead.

Israel has sent aid teams to the disaster area to investigate the situations of those injured by the earthquake and tidal waves and to assist in aiding the victims.

The latest death toll from the affected countries is as follows:

India: 6,279

Indonesia: 4,491

Malaysia: 44

Myanmar: 10

Sri Lanka: 7,017

Thailand: 461

Bangladesh: 2

Maldives: 32

Kenya: 1

Total: 18,337