Malediven und Thailand ausgehend von Sumatra,President Kamaratunga bittet um Internationale Hilfe
The quake of magnitude 8.9 on the Richter scale first struck at 7.59am (0059 GMT) off the coast of Aceh province on the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra and appeared to swing north into the Andaman islands in the Indian Ocean.
About 1000 people were killed in southern India where the tidal waves also swept away boats, homes and vehicles, said Home Minister Shivraj Patil.
Patil said the worst affected area was Tamil Nadu state, where 700 to 800 people are reported to have died, followed by Andhra Pradesh state where the toll was about 200. Another 14 people died in Kerala state and 14 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Tamil Nadu's beaches turned into virtual open-air mortuaries as fishermen's bodies washed ashore, and retreating waters left behind others killed inland.
At least 200 people died in Tamil Nadu's capital Madras alone, and up to 600 in other districts including Cuddalore, Patil said. Sea water flooded the streets of Cuddalore town, flipping over dozens of cars and leaving some cars perched atop road dividers.
Residents of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh state spoke of four-metre walls of water slamming into the shore.
Walls of water
More than 1500 people were killed after the tsunami triggered by the quake struck Sri Lanka, district officials said.
"The death toll has reached 1,500. We have one million people who have been affected," said the director of the National Disaster Management Centre "I think this is the worst ever natural disaster in Sri Lanka." he added.
Rescue operations are under way
The worst-hit area appeared to be the tourist region of Sri Lanka's south and east.
"The president has declared a state of national disaster due to the seriousness of the situation," President Chandrika Kumaratunga's office said in a statement.
"President Kumaratunga has appealed to the international community for emergency assistance," it added.
Indonesia hit
Indonesian towns nearest the epicentre of the earthquake were levelled by tidal waves that killed at least 408 people and left bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded, officials and witnesses said. Communications were down in several coastal towns, officials said, raising fears that further death and damage were yet to be reported.
Affected residents are fleeing to higher ground
Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island - which for years has been torn by separatist conflict - was worst hit.
Thousands of people had abandoned their homes and were headed for higher ground after the earthquake, which was centred 40km below the seabed off Sumatra's north coast, sent waves surging inland about 8am (0100 GMT), officials said.
Up to 55 people, many of them children, were killed when the tsunami swept the coast around the Bireuen regency in Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, a local mayor said.
Bireuen lies near the town of Lhokseumawe, which was also badly hit and where 23 people were killed. Officials said at least 100 people had been injured there.
"There were reports of tsunamis in Sabang with waves up to five metres, and on Aceh's northern coast in the town of Lhokseumawe," an official statement said.
An archipelago of 17,000 islands, Indonesia lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire where plate boundaries intersect and volcanoes regularly erupt.
Malaysia deaths
In neighbouring Malaysia, at least eight people were killed after a tsunami struck a popular beach in the northern island of Penang on Sunday, officials said. Several fishermen are missing Many fishermen were feared missing after the wave hit the western coast of the island, search and rescue officials said.
"Many fishing boats had gone out to sea this morning and not all have returned. There are still some out there," Penang Civil Defence Director Mohd Johari Mohd Taufik said.
In the idyllic Maldives islands, two-thirds of the capital, Male, was flooded by tsunami waves, the chief government spokesman said.
"The damage is considerable," Ahmad Shahid said. "The island is only about one metre above sea level and a wave of 1.3 metres high swept over us."
Resorts struck
At least 158 people were killed and more than 1000 injured in six southern Thai provinces hit by huge tsunami waves on Sunday, a disaster official said.
Those in areas affected by the tsunami are being evacuated Tourists and locals were being evacuated from several islands, including the tourist island of Koh Phi Phi, Somsak Sunwansujarit, deputy director general of the Thai disaster department, said.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered the evacuation of areas hit by the water.
More than 100 tourists on diving holidays are missing on islands off southern Thailand, about 70 of them in the famed Emeral Cave, a tourist official said.
"We don't know whether they are dead or alive," the official said from the southern city of Trang.
The Emeral Cave, which contains a tiny white sand beach and water turned emerald by sunshine through a hole in the top, is a major attraction for divers who have to swim underwater to get into it.
Tremors from the quake were felt as far away as Singapore and Bangkok.
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