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About 4,000 people in Sri Lanka,India, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia have been killed by horrible tsunamis triggered by devastating earthquake on Sunday.  (Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

    HONG KONG, Dec. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- About 4,000 people in Sri Lanka,India, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia have been killed by horrible tsunamis triggered by devastating earthquake on Sunday.

    The quake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale jolted sea areas northwest of Indonesia's Sumatra Sunday morning, the most powerful recorded in 40 years.

    According to the State Seismological Bureau of China, the epicenter of the quake is 30 kilometers from the coast, approximately 300 kilometers from Medan and 200 kilometers from Banda Aceh.

    The death toll of Sunday tidal wave devastation which hit the eastern and southern coasts of Sri Lanka had crossed 1,500 mark bypress time while the death toll reached 454 in Indonesia, more than 1,000 in India, 5 in Malaysia, 100 in Thailand and 1 in Maldives.

    In addition to the dead, hundreds of other people were reported missing elsewhere, most of them fishermen at sea, in the region.

    Sri Lankan prime minister's office said Sunday that some 1,500 people were killed and 1 million affected as tsunami tidal waves caused by an earthquake off Indonesia smashed into the island.

    Massive sea waves crashed into coastal villages over a wide area of Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing more than 1,000 people and displacing 500,000 others, officials and hospital doctors said. The death toll was still rising, they warned.

    The tidal waves also hit the neighboring Maldives, where the authorities closed the airport.

    Maldives government officials said the waves were as high as one meter, hitting the low-lying capital Male, two-thirds of which was under water.

    In Indonesia, some 454 people were killed after the extremely powerful earthquake rocked Aceh province of Indonesia on Sunday morning.

    According to Bireun chief of district in Aceh province the figure will increase as they still look for many unidentified deadbodies.

    The officials from Biruen and Pidie districts said thousands of people had left their homes to higher areas to avoid further tremor and flood.

    Up to now, the quake has already caused some hundreds houses down, electricity cut off and bridges damaged.

    In Thailand, some 100 people died and 1,339 were injured in southern Songkhla, Phuket, Krabi, Phang Nga and Surat Thani provinces, that draw thousands of visitors each year due to their world-famous beaches.

    At least 40 tourists died in Phuket island as waves had reachedas high as eight or even 10 meters before crashing into its coast.

    Phuket's famous beach town Patong was flooded with all shops, kiosks and hotels damaged by the tsunamis.

    On Phang-Nga, another popular tourist site near Phuket, people even sought refuge from the floods on rooftops. The tourists said they were relaxing on the beach when the tsunamis suddenly appeared.

    The navy has been airlifting tourists who were stranded at hotels and bungalows near affected beaches to safer areas.

    Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had been visiting the victims of recent earthquake in Nabire district, in Papua province, had ordered authorities to handle the natural disaster and asked some ministers to visit the affected area, the state spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said.

    Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday voiced concern overthe earthquake and tidal waves that hit Andaman and Nicobar islands and the country's east coast, according to Indo-Asian NewsService (IANS).

    The navy has been placed on full alert and rescue and relief operations are under way in the worst-hit Andman and Nicobar as well as the coastal areas of West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, officials in the prime minister's office (PMO) told media.

    Sri Lanka has called for international assistance in the face of the country's worst ever humanitarian disaster.

    According to the Sri Lankan president office, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga who was on a private visit to Britain is to cut short her visit and to return to Sri Lanka.

    In Malaysia, authorities closed some beaches to the public after 5 people were swept away from beaches near the northern city of Penang. The victims were believed to be mainly tourists and included some foreigners, said a police spokesman. Enditem