Death toll in Asian tsunami disaster passes 168,000
Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Indian Ocean nations has risen to 168,373 with another 5,000 deaths reported by Indonesia's social affairs ministry.
Indonesia was hardest-hit by the December 26 quake and tsunamis, with 115,229 confirmed deaths and 12,132 people missing as of Sunday, the social affairs ministry said.
Thailand's tsunami death toll crept higher to 5,321 confirmed dead, while the number of reported missing slipped to 3,170 names, the interior ministry said in a daily update.
Among the dead, 1,732 were believed to be Thais, 2,173 were believed foreign, and 1,416 were of unknown national origin, the ministry's disaster management agency said.
Sri Lanka's tsunami death toll stands at 30,920 and the number of those reported missing is 6,034, according to government figures.
In neighbouring India, the official death toll remains at 10,672 with 5,711 still missing and feared dead.
Burma's Prime Minister Soe Win has said 59 people were killed in the tsunamis, against an estimated 90 deaths according to the UN. But unofficial sources say the death toll reaches hundreds, with thousands of wounded.
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, most of them in Penang, according to police, while Bangladesh reported two deaths.
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 west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9.0 on the Richter scale - making it the largest quake worldwide in four decades.
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