Tears, prayers as Asia mourns tsunami dead 20 years on

Tearful mourners prayed on Dec 26 as ceremonies were held across Asia to remember the almost 230,000 people who died two decades ago when a tsunami hit coastlines around the Indian Ocean, in one of the world's worst natural disasters.

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – Tearful mourners prayed on Dec 26 as ceremonies were held across Asia to remember the almost 230,000 people who died two decades ago when a tsunami hit coastlines around the Indian Ocean, in one of the world's worst natural disasters.

On Dec 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's western tip generated a series of massive waves that pummelled the coastline of 14 countries from Indonesia to Somalia.

In Indonesia's Aceh province, where more than 100,000 people were killed, a siren rang out at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque to kick off a series of memorials around the region, including in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, which the tsunami hit hours later.

"I thought it was doomsday," Mr Hasnawati, a 54-year-old teacher who goes by one name, said at the Indonesian mosque that was damaged by the tsunami.

"On a Sunday morning where our family were all laughing together, suddenly a disaster struck, and everything is gone. I can't describe it with words."

Some mourners sat and cried at Aceh's Ulee Lheue mass grave, where around 14,000 were buried, while some villages held their own prayers around the province as they remembered the tragedy that devastated entire communities.

At Aceh's Siron mass grave, where around 46,000 people were buried, emotional relatives recited Islamic prayers in the shade of trees that have since grown there.