Tears, prayers as Asia mourns tsunami dead 20 years on
Flowers are scattered on the beach after women performed rituals during a ceremony held for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, at Pattinapakkam beach in Chennai on 26 December 2024. On 26 December 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia and triggered a huge tsunami across the Indian Ocean that killed more than 220,000 people in a dozen countries.
R. Satish BABU / AFP
Tearful mourners prayed and lit candles Thursday at ceremonies across Asia to remember the 220,000 people killed two decades ago when a tsunami hit coastlines around the Indian Ocean in one of the world's worst disasters.
A 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's western tip on December 26, 2004, generated a series of waves as high as 30 metres (98 feet) that pummelled the coastline of 14 countries from Indonesia to Somalia.
In Indonesia's Aceh Province, where more than 100,000 people were killed, a siren rang out at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque to kick off a series of memorials around the region, including in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, which the tsunami hit hours later.
People recounted harrowing tales of horror and miraculous survival as giant waves swept in without warning, carrying debris including cars and destroying buildings in their wake.
"I thought it was doomsday," said Hasnawati, a 54-year-old teacher who goes by one name, at the Indonesian mosque that was damaged by the tsunami.
"On a Sunday morning, where our family were all laughing together, suddenly a disaster struck and everything was gone. I can't describe it with words," she told AFP.
At Aceh's Siron mass grave, where around 46,000 people were buried, emotional relatives recited Islamic prayers in the shade of trees that have since grown there.
Khyanisa, a 59-year-old Indonesian housewife, lost her mother and daughter, searching in vain for them in the hope they were still alive.
"I kept chanting God's name. I looked for them everywhere," she said.
"There was a moment where I realised they were gone. I felt my chest was in pain. I screamed."
A mourner scatters flower petals at the Ulee Lheue mass grave, one of the two major mass burial sites where victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami were laid to rest, in Banda Aceh on 26 December 2024, the 20th anniversary of the tsunami. Tearful mourners prayed on 26 December as ceremonies began across Asia to remember the 220,000 people who died two decades ago when a tsunami hit coastlines around the Indian Ocean, in one of the world's worst natural disasters.
Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP
'Dismay'
The victims included many foreign tourists celebrating Christmas on the region's sun-kissed beaches, bringing the tragedy into homes around the globe.
The seabed being ripped open pushed waves at double the speed of a bullet train, crossing the Indian Ocean within hours.
In Thailand, where half of the more than 5,000 dead were foreign tourists, commemorations included tearful relatives laying flowers and wreaths at a wave-shaped wall in Ban Nam Khem, its worst-hit village.
Napaporn Pakawan, 55, lost her older sister and a niece in the tragedy.
"I feel dismay. I come here every year," she told AFP.
"Times flies but time is slow in our mind."
A candlelight vigil on the beach at Khao Lak organised by the Swedish embassy in Thailand drew a crowd of around 100, the majority Swedes. Sweden was one of the worst affected countries by proportion of population.
Anna Elf, 50, said she brought her children there because it was "important for them to know what happened" on that day.
"In Sweden everyone knows somebody who was affected or who lost somebody... it's kind of like a national trauma," she said.