Tuesday, January 4 2005 14:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jakarta: The number of people killed in the undersea earthquake and giant waves that hit the Indian Ocean shorelines a week ago neared 1,46,000 today (Jan 4, 2005).

The death toll in Indonesia, which bore the brunt of the December 26 catastrophe, rose to 94,100 today, the Health Ministry said.

The United Nations warned overnight, however, that Indonesia's casualty figure could rise exponentially with perhaps tens of thousands more dead as yet unaccounted for.

In Sri Lanka, 30,196 were confirmed killed by the tsunamis, while a further 3,792 were listed as missing, the President's office said.

In Thailand Interior Ministry figures put the death toll at 5,187 - 2,463 foreigners, 2,362 Thais and 362 whose race could not be established.

It said that 3,810 are missing, eight days after the waves hit resorts and fishing villages in six provinces along the Andaman Sea coast. Officials say most of these are presumed dead.

In Myanmar at least 90 people were killed, according to the UN, but the real toll was expected to be far higher. At least 75 people were killed and another 42 were confirmed missing in the Maldives, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said.

Sixty-eight people were dead in Malaysia, most of them in Penang, police said. In Bangladesh a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized in large waves, officials said.

Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 176 people were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya.