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Siren rings as Aceh mourners mark 20 years after deadly tsunami
In Banda Aceh city, an official ceremony at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque kicked off a series of memorials across Asia with a three-minute-long siren at the exact time a major earthquake caused giant waves on December 26, 2004.
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Women walk at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh on December 25, 2024, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
A
siren rang out as survivors and relatives of victims began commemorations Thursday for more than 220,000 people killed when a tsunami hit nations around the Indian Ocean 20 years ago.
In Banda Aceh city, an official ceremony at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque kicked off a series of memorials across Asia with a three-minute-long siren at the exact time a major earthquake caused giant waves on December 26, 2004.
A 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Sumatra's western tip generated a series of massive waves that pummelled the coastline of more than a dozen countries from Indonesia to Somalia.
Beachside memorials and religious ceremonies will be held across the worst-hit countries to mark the anniversary.
Indonesia suffered the highest death toll, with more than 160,000 people killed along its western coast while thousands also died in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
In Sri Lanka, where more than 35,000 people perished, survivors and relatives were to gather to remember around 1,000 victims who died when waves derailed a passenger train.
In Thailand, where half of the more than 5,000 dead were foreign tourists, unofficial vigils were expected to accompany a government memorial ceremony.
Nearly 300 people were killed as far away as Somalia, as well as more than 100 in the Maldives and dozens in Malaysia and Myanmar, according to EM-DAT, a recognised global disaster database.
