The true scale of the disaster may never be known
|
The number of dead from Sunday's Indian Ocean sea surges is likely to rise above 100,000, the Red Cross has said.
Senior agency official Peter Rees said he thought the toll would rise sharply when victims are counted on India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Almost 77,000 people have so far been confirmed dead.
US President George W Bush pledged to set up an international coalition, with Australia, India and Japan, to co-ordinate the relief effort.
The US earlier said it was more than doubling its pledge of funds to the region to $35m.
The 9.0 magnitude quake happened just off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra early on Sunday and set off huge waves that reached as far as Africa.
The UN says disease could double the number killed by the waves.
'Unprecedented disaster'
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has said the death toll from the actual disaster could reach six figures once more remote areas are checked for victims.
 |
Click below to see images of Kalutara Beach, Sri Lanka, before and after the quake
|
"We're facing a disaster of unprecedented proportion in nature," said the federation's Asia-Pacific chief, Simon Missiri.
Many thousands of people are still unaccounted for, notably in the Indian-administered Andaman and Nicobar Islands near the earthquake's epicentre.
Some parts of the islands, which have a total population of 350,000, are still said to be cut off from the outside world.
At least 4,000 are known to have died on the islands, but a police chief who has flown over the stricken areas said one in five of the islanders was either dead, missing or injured.
Scavenging
In Indonesia, thousands of troops have been drafted into the north-western province of Aceh to dig mass graves.
|
CONFIRMED DEATH TOLL
Indonesia: 45,268
Sri Lanka: 22,493
India: 6,974
Thailand: 1,829
Somalia: 100
Burma: 90
Maldives: 55
Malaysia: 65
Tanzania: 10
Seychelles: 3
Bangladesh: 2
Kenya: 1
|
One army battalion sent previously to the region to fight a rebel insurgency is said to have been wiped out.
The BBC's Rachel Harvey in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, says that in the space of 20 minutes she counted 10 lorries filled with bodies arriving at one grave.
There were still bodies lying in the rubble in some areas while survivors scavenged nearby for food, she says.
The first ship carrying emergency supplies is reported to have reached the worst hit Indonesian town of Meulaboh, where 10,000 are feared dead - 10% of the population.
But many areas along the western coast of Sumatra have still not been reached.
And our correspondent says that while aid is arriving in the region, it still only feels like a trickle.
Aid challenge
Plane loads of supplies are arriving in Sri Lanka - the worst-affected country outside Indonesia, where more than 22,000 people are known to have died.
|
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Click below to visit the websites of agencies carrying out relief work
|
A UN team is also on the island to co-ordinate the relief effort.
But the BBC's Roland Buerk on the southern coast says getting the aid to the worst-hit areas will be a huge logistical operation.
The Tamil Tiger rebels - who control large stretches of affected coast in the north - say that so far they have received no help from the authorities.
Meanwhile in Thailand, thousands of tourists remain unaccounted for, and bodies are still being recovered from the wreckage of collapsed hotels on the Andaman Sea coast.
A TV News Special on the disaster, including reports from BBC correspondents across the region, will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC World TV at 1930 GMT on Wednesday.
IMPACT OF THE EARTHQUAKE
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
Enlarge Image
Survivors' tales
