Wednesday, December 29 2004 13:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jakarta: The confirmed number of people killed in the massive earthquake and tidal waves that struck Indian Ocean shorelines at the weekend approached 59,000 today (Dec 29, 2004), amid warnings that the true toll could be far higher.

In Indonesia, an official from the Social Affairs Ministry said that the country's toll had risen to 30,057 after it took the full force of Sunday's (Dec 26, 2004) huge earthquake and tidal waves that swallowed entire coastal villages.

In Sri Lanka, 17,800 people, including at least 70 foreigners, were killed by the tidal waves.

More than 1,500 people, among them more than 700 foreign tourists, were killed in southern Thailand, officials said. They feared that most of around 1,500 people still missing were foreign tourists.

In Myanmar, at least 90 people were killed, according to the UN, while 65 people were dead in Malaysia, officials said.

At least 55 people including two British holidaymakers were killed in the tourist paradise of the Maldives while another 69 were missing, officials said.

In Bangladesh, a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized by large waves, officials said.

Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 100 fishermen were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya.