THOUSANDS were killed when a tsunami triggered by the strongest earthquake in four decades swept across the Indian Ocean from Indonesia to India yesterday, devastating villages and coastal resorts. The waves even reached East Africa, killing nine people in Somalia and one in Kenya.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 8.9, struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday morning, unleashing a wave that raced across the Andaman Sea at more than 300mph (500km/h) before crashing into coastlines from Bangladesh in the north to the Maldives in the south.

More than 11,000 were reported dead in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Maldives after the massive wall of water up to 30ft high swept into coasts, washing away villages, fishing huts, hotels and resorts. The death toll was expected to rise further last night as the floodwaters receded and more bodies were retrieved.

Among the dead were an unknown number of foreign tourists, hundreds of thousands of whom had come for diving and beach holidays over the peak Christmas season.

One of the worst affected countries was Sri Lanka, where a state of emergency was declared. At least 4,300 people were reported killed and more than a million displaced or homeless. Many of the victims were children and older people who could not flee in time.

More than 2,400 people were killed in southern India after the wave struck the densely populated eastern coast, sweeping away flimsy huts and swallowing up hundreds of tiny fishing boats.

Tourists were caught in the chaos as the waves hit Phuket and other holiday islands off Thailand, killing at least 300. More than 100 foreign tourists diving off the islands were also reported missing.

More than 400 people were reported dead on Sumatra where bodies of the drowned were found hanging in the branches of trees where people had climbed to try to reach safety. In Maldives thousands of well-heeled foreign tourists were staying in luxury huts on stilts in the clear-water lagoons scattered across the atoll nation and vulnerable to such waves. One holidaymaker said that an island was “wiped off the map”, although there were no casualties there.

Survivors spoke in horror of watching the towering wall of water bearing down on them as they tried to escape from beachside restaurants and hotels.

Michael Austin, 42, from Birmingham, was sitting on his verandah at the Sea Breeze hotel in Mahabalipuram, north of Madras, when the wave hit. “I was waiting for my breakfast to arrive when suddenly I heard screaming. I looked and saw a 10ft wave come crashing in from the sea. I froze. I couldn’t move. There was a German tourist on the beach doing yoga when the wave hit and I saw him desperately clinging to a palm tree to stop himself getting swept away but there was nothing I could do to help him.”

Ursula Boehm, 37, from Munich, found herself stranded after surviving the tidal wave when floodwaters closed all roads out of the seaside town.“I am stuck here. There is no public transport so I cannot get out,” she said, sobbing. “I went up to the highway with a friend and saw foreigners camped there without food or water so I consider myself lucky. What we saw was like something out of a movie. I cannot believe we are alive.”

Minutes before the wave had hit Unawatuna, a backpacker resort on the south coast of Sri Lanka. “We were in our room and we just heard this huge roar and then, without warning, the water was pounding against the door,” Lorraine Donnelly, 26, from Newcastle, said, who had been staying in a simple guesthouse on the beach. “The water began pouring in and when we opened the door we were swept along the corridor up to our necks in water,” she said.

“When we got out into the street, there was chaos, with people screaming and crying. Cars and motorbikes were being swept along the streets. We managed to wade up the hill until we were just up to our knees. People were standing there crying, looking for their children. I think we lost everything but at least we are alive.”

In Tamil Nadu, in India, thousands of wailing relatives gathered on beaches where washed-up bodies were laid out in rows for identification.

In Andhra Pradesh, also in India, about 200 Hindu devotees, who had gone to the beach for a holy dip, were among those feared dead, leaving distraught children. “Where are my mummy and daddy?” cried Bhuvaneswari, 9, whose parents were swallowed by the sea at Manginapudi beach. Almost 500 tourists were also reported to be stranded on a rock in the sea off the country’s southernmost tip, a popular tourist site.

Sri Lanka appealed for urgent help. Experts called the disaster unprecedented. Some of the dead were reported to have been swept out to sea after being drawn to the beach by curiosity on seeing seawaters rushing backwards, a common precursor to a major tidal wave.

Aftershocks may claim more lives. They can follow major ruptures in the seabed caused by the movement of tectonic plates during an earthquake.

(Additional reporting by Sunetra Chakravarti in Mahabalipuram)

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