Large number killed by Tsunami said children

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 19:04 GMT]
A large number of children were killed by Tsunami waves in Sri Lankaís northeast, rescue workers and local journalists said. Thousands of children have been wounded in the floods and are still without access to first aid, they said. Lack of transport and roads destroyed by the monster waves are slowing rescue work in Mullaithivu, Mutur, Batticaloa and Amparai, according to aid workers.

Children mostly affected also in Jaffna-District

"In some places here there aren't people to identify many bodies because whole families have been killed by the waves. In several areas we found the bodies of both parents and children killed by the waves", an aid worker in Batticaloa told TamilNet.

He said that Navalady and Thiruchendoor, two coastal suburbs of Batticaloa town, were completely devastated by the Tsunami.

"The Thiruchendoor Temple collapsed when it was hit directly by a massive wave. It has blocked the road to the area. We have to walk at least four kilometers to the area. It is not accessible by road now. There are many bodies trapped in the houses destroyed by the waves in Thiruchendoor", a Catholic priest in Batticaloa said.

Rescue work has been further hampered by a curfew imposed on the eastern town by the Sri Lankan armed forces, according to aid workers.

There is no room in the Batticaloa Teaching hospital mortuary to accommodate the large number of bodies that is being brought in, according to doctors. Most of the dead are women and children, they said.

Devotees at the Gayathri Sittar Temple by the Kallady beach in Batticaloa town are missing and the popular place of worship has been destroyed by the Tsunami waves.

One report said that more than fifty children were killed in an orphanage in Ninthavur, 45 kilometres south of Batticaloa. A hospital was destroyed by the Tsunami in Maruthamunai, 36 kilometres south of Batticaloa.

At least five hundred bodies have been recovered from the coastal towns and villages of the Amparai districts - Kalmunai, Paandiruppu, Ninthavur, Karaithivu, Oluvil, Akkaraipattu, Thirukkovil and Pottuvil, medical sources in the east said.

The destruction would have been much greater if the Tsunami had hit during the night, residents said.


Dead children in Mullaitivu-District