Thailand: The tsunami sowed chaos in Thailand's southern tourist playground, tossing cars around and bursting into luxury hotels on Phuket, killing 310 people. Witnesses spoke of a wave three-storeys high which destroyed small hotels on the mainland and injured more than 5,000 people.
The government ordered the evacuation of stricken areas, which included the main beaches of Phuket, popular with Western and Asian tourists, and currently at the height of the Christmas holiday season.
Disaster officials said 117 people died in Phuket, including 35 foreigners. Nearly 700 people were injured and 214 missing. Another 16 foreigners were among 36 dead in nearby Krabi, a hospital official said. "We are in chaos," said Mr Somsak Sunwansujarit, deputy director of the disaster department, which put the total death toll at 310.
Helicopters and ships were sent to assess the damage in a region of exotically-shaped limestone islands scattered in the turquoise waters of the Andaman Sea and popular with snorkellers and divers among Thailand's annual 12 million tourists.
Rescue workers evacuated about 70 Thai and foreign divers from the famed Emeral Cave and several dozen were evacuated from other islands, officials said. Two Thais were killed at Emeral, a major attraction for divers who have to swim underwater to its tiny beach.
The Thai state news agency said more than 4,000 foreign and Thai tourists were stranded on Ko Phi Phi, the tiny island made famous by the 2000 film The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio.Thai television showed tourists huddled on the island's devastated beach- front, while others helped the injured to rescue helicopters.
The tsunami struck the west coast of Phuket, right along its main beaches, lined with luxury hotels and resorts.
"I just couldn't believe what was happening before my eyes," a Swedish tourist, Mr Boree Carlsson, said from a hotel 500 metres from Phuket's Patong beach. "A car actually floated into the lobby and overturned because the current was so strong." He wrapped himself around a pillar to avoid being swept away.
The tsunami also struck the Thai mainland provinces of Phang Nga, Krabi, Satun, Trang and Ranong. In the Phang Nga tourist spot of Khao Lak, a collection of about 20 small resorts of up to 40 rooms was wiped out, a hotel worker said. "Before the wave hit, I saw seawater fall back around 100 metres from the beach, and some minutes later there was a three-storey high wave moving toward the beach and everything collapsed," he said.
The stunned Thai Prime Minister, Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, said the tsunami was unprecedented. "Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before." He said Thai Airways would add extra flights to allow tourists to leave Phuket for the capital Bangkok. "There are lots of tourists and we don't have enough space for them to stay." - (Reuters)