Wednesday, December 29 2004 12:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Nagapattinam (TN) : Over 4,900 bodies have been buried by Red Cross volunteers in the district so far, according to an official of the Thanjavur chapter of the Red Cross (RC).

The buried included 2,400 from Nagapattinam, 1,500 from Velankanni and 1,000 from other parts of the district, R C Thanjavur district secretary Raj Manohar said.

The death toll was likely to go up as more bodies had been sighted in some places in the district, which were badly affected due to the December 26 Tsunami, he said.

Thirty medical teams from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were working round-the-clock to provide relief to the affected. Over 500 injured persons had been admitted to Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and Tiruvarur Government hospitals, he said.

The Red Cross, with the help of RSS volunteers, has undertaken mass burials all over the district. Even bodies that could not be identified had been buried as they were highly decomposed, he said.

The entire coastal belt from Nagore to Velankanni, in which 14 fishermen hamlets were located, had been washed away due to the tidal waves, he said.

The RC, together with the health authorities, would launch a massive anti-cholera inoculation programme from today (Dec 29, 2004) in the district. Corporate houses like BHEL and Hyundai were supplying medicines to Government authorities, he said.