Largest rescue operation in the country's history
Phuket (AsiaNews/Agencies) An international team as well as 13,000 Thai volunteers have launched the largest rescue operation in the country's history. Meanwhile, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced that the death toll from Sunday's earthquake-cum-tsunami could reach as high as 7,000 people.
Rescue operations, he said, are a virtual race against time because "many people are still missing" and about 80 per cent of them are "likely dead already", whilst the remaining 20 per cent is probably unable to communicate their whereabouts.
As of today, official figures speak of 1,975 people dead and 6,000 missing, both Thai residents and foreign tourists.
The international team of volunteers is made up of Australians, Germans, Japanese, Israelis and members from other nations. It is making its way along Thailand's southern coast in a desperate attempt to find survivors, and recover and identify bodies that have been decomposing on the beach.
Rotting corpses are fouling the air making breathing nigh impossible, whilst lack of hygiene is increasing the chances of epidemic outbreaks.
Rescue workers are focusing on a 30-km stretch of Phang Nga province coastline, north of Phuket Island. More than half of all the dead were found in this part of the country.
Another 3,000 peopleforeign tourists and residents in poor local villagesare thought to have died when the tsunami hit.
Jurit Laksanawisit, a member of parliament for Phang Nga, said that "rescue workers are trying to save tourists with little concern for local fishermen and residents". He described rescue operations as "slow and chaotic" and claimed that "more could have been done".
Thailand's Prime Minister admitted problems in coordinating rescue operations because of the number of stricken areas, but stressed "the commitment and good will of rescuers" who are working in hardly ideal conditions.
Prison inmates have also been mobilised in the rescue effort. They are charged with removing dead bodies and building temporary shelters for foreigners.
During rescue operations in Khao Lak, hundreds of people fled the beach in panic after a siren warned of an impending tsunami. Eventually, it turned out to be a false alarm. It was, however, also sounded in India.
Seismographers in Hong Kong recorded another quake measuring magnitude 5.7 centred north-west of Sumatra in Indonesia.
Throughout the region, children were hardest hit; about one third of the dead were underage.
Some, however, were luckier. A British woman said a group of kids was able to escape the killer wave by jumping on the back of an elephant.
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