Thursday, February 3 2005 17:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Banda Aceh (Indonesia): Indonesian workers cleaning up debris of the Dec 26 tsunami found 897 more bodies, raising the confirmed death toll from the tragedy to 111,171, the Government said today (Feb 3, 2005).

The number of missing remains 127,749, said the Government's National Disaster Relief Coordinating Board in a statement. Most of the missing are feared dead but can't be legally declared such for a year.

It said authorities found 897 more bodies in Aceh province yesterday (Feb 2, 2005) and buried them, raising the confirmed death toll in the area to 111,043.

In addition, 128 people died in a neighbouring province for a confirmed total death toll of 111,171.

Indonesian Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab has predicted the body count would continue to rise for weeks as retrieval teams are finding an average of 500 bodies a day during cleanup operations.

Despite the rising death toll, the Government hasn't changed its tally of missing people, saying the figure is an estimate and should not be added to the death toll for a year.