Prayers and tears as Asia marks tsunami anniversary

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Prayers and tears as Asia marks tsunami anniversary

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MEULABOH, Indonesia (AFP) — Bereaved families across Asia wept and prayed on Friday as they marked four years since a huge tsunami devastated the shores of the Indian Ocean in one of the worst ever natural disasters.

Thousands gathered in fields, on beaches and by mass graves to commemorate the disaster that killed around 220,000 people when walls of water smashed into coastal communities, where many people are still homeless.

In Indonesia's Aceh province, the heaviest-hit region with at least 168,000 people killed, crowds massed in the shattered remains of a military base in the coastal town of Meulaboh for a sombre Islamic prayer ceremony.

"We are here to remember the martyrs who were killed in the tsunami and to give us momentum to rebuild a better Aceh," local government head Ramli Mansur told the crowd.


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