COLOMBO (Reuters) - One of the most powerful earthquakes in a century hit Asia on Sunday, unleashing tsunami waves on coastal areas of Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Thailand, and killing an estimated 11,300 people.
The tsunami waves were triggered by an 8.9 magnitude underwater earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, rearing up into walls of water as high as 30 feet as they hit shallow coastlines in south and south-east Asia.
"I heard an eerie sound that I have never heard before. It was a high pitched sound followed by a deafening roar," said a 55-year-old Indian fishermen who gave his name as Chellappa/ "I told everyone to run for their life."
In Indonesia, raging waters dragged villagers out to sea, flung others inland and tore children from their parents' arms.
One official said more than 4,400 people had died there, while thousands more were missing. A senior army officer said corpses were still caught up in trees when rescue workers stopped for the night.
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The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1964, said Julie Martinez, at the USGS in Golden, Colorado.
The tsunami was so powerful it reached across the ocean to smash boats and flood areas along the east African coast.
A tsunami, a Japanese word that translates as "harbor wave," is usually caused by a sudden rise or fall of part of the earth's crust under or near the ocean.
It is not a single wave, but a series of waves that can travel across the ocean at speeds of more than 500 miles an hour. As the tsunami enters the shallows of coastlines in its path, its velocity slows but its height increases.
A tsunami that is just a few centimeters or meters high from trough to crest can rear up to heights of 30 to 50 meters as it hits the shore, striking with devastating force.
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