The world's 5th largest earthquake in a century hit Southeast Asia on Sunday morning 26 December 2005, triggering a huge Tsunami tidal wave that hit the shores of Thailand, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka and India, drowning thousands and destroying hundreds of properties.
A water wall of more than 10 meters (30 feet) high triggered by an earthquake of 8.9 on the Righter Magnitude Scale swept into the coastlines of Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and into tourist resorts such as Phuket Island and Koh Phi Phi along the Southern coast of Thailand, where many thousands are feared dead, officials said.
The earthquake, measured by the U.S. Geological Survey at a magnitude 8.9 as struck at 7:59 a.m.(0059 GMT) just off the coast of the island of Sumatra in Indonesian island of Sumatra and swung further north with multiple tremors, creating a crack in the earth of more than a thousand Kilometer towards the Andaman islands.
Hundreds of tourists on diving holidays in Southern Thailand islands are reported missing with about 70 of them missing in the by divers famed Emerald Cave, a tourist official of Thailand said.
The government of Thailand has sent helicopters to Koh Phi Phi island, a very popular holiday island with tourists, and other smaller islands in the Andaman Sea near Phuket to assess the damage from the Tsunami waves.
Thailand also ordered the immediate evacuation of all stricken areas, which include Patong Beach on the island of Phuket, very popular with Western and Australian tourists in peak season of December-January.
In the South of Thailand, officials reported some Tsunami waves of 6 to 10 meters (19 to 32 feet) high which have hit beach-line Phuket hotels. At least 55 people are reported killed and more than 700 reported missing, Thai officials said.
Tsunami waves come in cycles, first there is a surge, then the water will retreat and then there is another surge which is more violent than the one before, going on like that until the biggest and most powerful wave hits, this is the one which can pick-up trucks, boats and cars, throwing them huge distances inland.
Local Thai television is currently showing life scenes of devastation on Patong Beach in Phuket where store fronts are damaged and trucks and cars are strewn inland after being tossed around by the powerful Tsunami waves that hit Thailand.
