Sri Lanka rushes to bury its dead

Loading the dead on to a lorry in Galle

Urgent efforts are being made in Sri Lanka to bury the thousands of people killed by Sunday's sea surges to prevent the spread of disease.

The island's National Disaster Management Centre now says the death toll is more than 18,000.

Rescue workers have reached a train in which more than 1,000 passengers are believed to have been killed.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga has declared Friday to be an official day of mourning.

The Sri Lankan stock exchange tumbled by more than four per cent on Tuesday over fears of the impact the disaster will have on the tourist industry.

More than one million people have been displaced by the disaster, officials say.

Little ceremony

One of the worst affected areas is the town of Galle in the south of the island .

In pictures: Sri Lanka and India aftermath

The BBC's Roland Buerk in Galle says the dead are being buried with haste and little ceremony.

Dozens of bodies were lined up in the open air outside Galle's hospital , waiting to be taken away.

Our correspondent says that in resorts and villages along the coast, they are burying corpses as soon as they find them.

The graves of tourists are being marked and notes taken of names where the dead are known.

To the north of Galle, yet more tragedy has been discovered.

A packed train travelling between Galle and the capital, Colombo, was caught in the sea wave on Sunday and swept off the tracks.

Rescuers got to the site on Tuesday. Reports say of the 1,600 on board, just 300 got out alive.

So far some 150 bodies have been retrieved and buried or cremated by the track, according to the Associated Press news agency.

'Completely destroyed'

The Sri Lankan military on Tuesday said the death toll was nearly 13,000 - a similar figure to that given by officials on Monday.

Mines were floated by the floods and washed out of known mine fields, so now we don't know where they are Ted Chaiban Unicef

However, the National Disaster Management Centre says the death toll is 18,706.

In areas along the north-eastern coast under the control of Tamil Tigers rebels, people estimate that more than 7,000 have died.

An MP for the town of Batticaloa told the pro-Tamil website Tamilnet that there had been much damage to the town.

"The newly-built government hospital, public buildings, schools, [Tamil Tiger] political offices, homes, churches and temples have been completely destroyed by the sea," S Jeyanandamoorthy said.

The rebels have launched their own relief operation but the BBC's Dumeetha Luthra in Sri Lanka says that this part of the country has little basic infrastructure.

Tourist fears

Shares on the Colombo stock exchange were down by 4.32% at the close of trading on Tuesday.

The Sri Lankan economy is heavily dependent on a tourist industry that has boomed since the Tamil Tigers declared a ceasefire nearly three years ago.

British officials fear that many UK tourists are among the dead.

"There are... four confirmed British deaths, though we are expecting that figure to rise as our teams reach the worst-hit areas," Nicola Stanton of the British High Commission in Colombo said.

On Monday, the chairman of Sri Lanka's Tourist Board put the number of foreign tourists killed at 72.

President Kumaratunga has asked members of all of the country's different religions to join together on Friday in services to observe a day of mourning.

'New risk'

The United Nations says an additional problem has come from land mines unearthed by the flooding.

"Land mines are posing a new risk to Sri Lankans, and to relief efforts," said Ted Chaiban, head of the United Nations' children's fund in Sri Lanka.

"Mines were floated by the floods and washed out of known mine fields, so now we don't know where they are and the warning signs... have been swept away or destroyed."

Maldives damage

In the Maldives, south of Sri Lanka, 10,000 people have been evacuated from a number of islands, officials told the Reuters news agency.

But they say the death toll is still 55, including some foreign tourists.

Presidential spokesman Mohamed Shareef said communications between the country's 200 islands had been restored.

But he said the tourist industry had suffered much damage.

"We have 87 resorts and 20 have been completely destroyed. We estimate the damage to property and infrastructure to be over $1 billion. This is a big hit on the economy."