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Over 2,000 Scandinavians missing after tsunami
More than 68,000 people are now known to have been killed by Sunday's earthquake-generated tsunami that crashed ashore in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Maldives. At least 174 of those were tourists, government and rescue officials said. The missing include at least 1,500 Swedes, 800 Norwegians, 214 Danes and 200 Finns escaping the frigid Nordic winter. "This might be one of the biggest catastrophes to have struck Norwegians abroad," Foreign Minister Jan Petersen said. Apart from the Scandinavians, authorities had lost track of more than 200 Czechs, 188 Israelis, 100 Germans and 100 Italians. Relatives and friends flocked to stricken areas in a desperate search for the missing, but authorities feared the death toll among foreigners would rise as shattered beach hotels began to yield up their dead. "My father was not there," German yacht skipper Jerzy Chojnowski said in the Thai beach resort of Phuket after poring over pictures of those killed by the massive waves. Chojnowski had spent the day scouring Phuket's Bang Tao beach where he found his 83-year-old father Konrad's mud-covered beach bag. So far, the confirmed dead included 18 British tourists, 13 each from Norway and Italy, 11 Americans, 14 from France and nine from Japan. Tourists from Australia, Canada, Germany, Poland, South Africa and South Korea were also among the dead. Amid the chaos, there was some rare good news. A Swedish toddler was reunited with relatives, including his grandmother, after his picture was posted on the Internet. Hannes Bergstrom, 14 months old, was found wrapped in blankets on a hill by an American couple on Sunday, hours after a Thai villager had rescued the boy from the raging waters that killed more than 1,500 people in Thailand. His father survived but his mother remains missing. "Just to see his grandma in there, you know, I cried," Ron Rubin, who recovered the child, told Reuters as Hannes played in a Phuket hospital room with his grandmother and uncle. WORST-HIT AREA Hotel owners in Khao Lak, north of Phuket, said they feared hundreds of foreign guests were dead, their bodies swept into the rainforest covering the hills behind the beach. More than 300 bodies were found on Thailand's Phi Phi island, made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio's film "The Beach," which was devastated by a series of powerful waves. Tourists' luggage and personal belongings were scattered around the small town. The once pristine beach was littered with debris.
Dozens of foreigners at Phuket city hall pored over pictures of the missing. The photos, put up by distraught friends and relatives, included pleas for help. "I will reward you if you can find her," said the message with a photo of a young Asian girl in pigtails who was on Phi Phi island when the tsunami struck. The 14-year old granddaughter of British actor and film director Richard Attenborough was among the dead, and his daughter and her mother-in-law were missing, a friend said. Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, in Sri Lanka on a private holiday, was safe, a spokesman said. Japan's Foreign Ministry has officially confirmed four Japanese deaths, all in Phuket. Sri Lankan officials have said nine Japanese were thought to have died there. About 20 relatives of 10 Japanese tourists missing in Sri Lanka left for the
island on Wednesday to view seven bodies that have been
recovered. |
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![An unidentified Western tourist tries to find loved ones among bodies lined outside a temple in Takuapa, near Phuket December 29, 2004. Western holidaymakers -- especially Scandinavians -- bore the brunt of deadly tidal waves that hit Thailand, officials said Wednesday, as rescuers continued the horrific task of retrieving and identifying corpses. [AFP]](xin_231201291527539304948.jpg)
