1,20,000 and counting

The total toll had shot up more than 50 per cent in a day with still no clear picture of conditions in some isolated islands and villages around India and Indonesia. Indonesian Health Ministry sources told Reuters just under 80,000 had died in the northern Aceh province that was close to the undersea quake, some 28,000 more than previously announced. The airport of the main city, Banda Aceh, was busy with aid flights, but residents said little was getting through to them.

Rumours, unfounded, of another tsunami swept to the seaboard of Sri Lanka and India, highlighting the continued tension across the stricken region four days after the quake. There were scenes of panic in Sri Lanka, where over 27,000 have been killed. Thousands fled inland from the eastern coast.

The world pledged $220 million in cash and sent a flotilla of ships and aircraft laden with supplies. ‘‘As many as 5 million people are not able to access what they need for living,’’ said David Nabarro, head of a WHO crisis team.

In Sri Lanka’s worst-hit area Ampara, residents ran things themselves, going around with loudhailers, asking people to donate pots and pans, buckets of fresh water and sarongs. In the Thai resort turned graveyard of Khao Lak, the grim task of retrieving bodies was interrupted briefly when a tremor cleared the beach of people in a flash. Dutch, German and Swiss forensic teams flew to Thailand to help identify now hard to recognise bodies by collecting dental evidence, DNA samples, fingerprints, photographs and X-rays. —Reuters