From correspondents in Rome
December 29, 2004

THE death toll from the massive tsunamis unleashed by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean could reach more than 100,000, the head of Italy’s civil emergency relief services warned today.

“The number of victims is destined to increase over the coming days and I fear that in the end it will be more than 100,000 deaths even if we will never know the exact figure because there is no register of the population in most of the affected countries,” Guido Bertolaso, director of the Italian civil protection unit told reporters.

Italy’s emergency relief services have been charged with coordinating all rescue operations in the region by the European Union, Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said.

Two days after the massive tidal waves ravaged the coastline of eight Asian countries, the death toll has passed 55,000, with 30,000 people still missing. Most of the victims have been in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

“From Colombo (Sri Lanka) to Sumatra (Indonesia), there are 8000 kilometres of coast hit by the tidal wave belonging to countries among the most populated in the world, absolutely not prepared to face this type of catastrophe,” he added.

“Those who have survived are going to have to face another emergency: epidemics. The tidal wave left a large number of bodies and destroyed all the health structures and evacuation systems. The scenario described is apocalyptic but unfortunately true,” he said.

From news.com.au