Sri Lankans remember tsunami victims

Friday, 27 December 2013 02:32 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lankans yesterday paid tribute to those who died in the 2004 tsunami. Two minutes-silence was observed yesterday from 9.25 to 9.27 in remembrance of all Sri Lankans who lost their lives in natural disasters.

The Tsunami catastrophe which battered Sri Lanka in 2004 had a catastrophic impact on the Southern, Western, Eastern and Northern Provinces of the country. Nearly two thirds of the country’s coastal belt, i.e. 13 administrative districts bore the brunt of the disaster. Approximately 35, 000 lives were lost while 5000 were reported missing and 95,000 others were deprived of their livelihood. In a symbolic gesture of creating awareness among people as regards the disaster mitigation, 26 December of each year was named as “National Safety Day”. A woman cries as she prays near a mass grave for victims, who died when their train was swept from its tracks by the 2004 tsunami, during a memorial in Peraliya, about 90 km (56 miles) south of Colombo 26 December, 2013. Hundreds of memorial events were held across Asia in memory of the towering waves that crashed ashore with little warning on 26 December, 2004, killing around 230,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries. More than half the victims were Indonesians; with Sri Lanka and India next worst hit – REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte