Copter crash, aftershock hinder Aceh relief efforts

A US Military Seahawk crashed near the crowded airport in the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh, the hub of a huge effort to help millions of people whose lives were crippled two weeks ago by the most widespread natural disaster in living memory.

Officials said no one died but all on board were taken to hospital. The US military halted all helicopter flights taking aid to cut-off areas but scaled-back operations soon resumed.

Earlier, panic-stricken people in the devastated city fled from their homes and shelters after a 6.2-magnitude aftershock hit at 5 am. ‘‘There has been no report of casualties,’’ said Sutiono, an official at Indonesia’s meteorological bureau.

The tsunami triggered by a 9-magnitude earthquake on December 26 killed at least 156,000 people around the Indian Ocean, with Aceh province on the north tip of Sumatra island accounting for almost all of Indonesia’s 104,000 deaths.

The waves also killed about 30,000 people in Sri Lanka, 15,000 in India, more than 5,000 in Thailand and others in the Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh and several East African nations.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew over stricken areas of the Maldives to assess the damage, which officials say has changed the whole coastline of the remote island chain.

Thailand said it would have to exhume more than 600 hastily buried bodies for fuller forensic tests. More than 2,000 of the 5,303 known dead in the country are yet to be identified. Even the most basic identification of many corpses as Thai or foreigner needed to be checked again, officials said.

Of the 2,159 unidentified people, 1,974 died in Phang Nga where the tsunami crumpled hotels on Khao Lak beach and left an unknown number dead in a fishing village.

In Sri Lanka, children and teachers prepared for a massive clean-up as a new school term started. In many coastal areas, desks are broken, rooms are full of a sodden mess left by the waves and schools are being used as relief camps.

Sweden, which lost hundreds of tourists, held a memorial service as it dealt with what may be its worst loss of life in 200 years. King Carl XVI Gustaf urged people to help by being open about the catastrophe in a country accustomed to keeping its feelings under wraps. ‘‘Tell it to others so that the memory lives on, do not sweep it under the carpet,’’ he said. —Reuters