Disease spreads in tsunami camps

Sri Lankans watch the sea after Monday's tsunami alert was lifted

Doctors in Sri Lanka say an outbreak of disease is spreading in camps established for tsunami refugees near the north-eastern town of Trincomalee.

A local health official said refugees in the area of Kinniya were suffering from illnesses such as chicken pox, diarrhoea and fever.

They have been living in temporary tents for three months.

Meanwhile police say five people died in Sri Lanka during panic caused by tsunami warnings earlier in the week.

Excessive heat

Refugees in the Kinniya area say the problems of disease are exacerbated by their crowded living conditions.

They say that in many cases more than one family is living in a single tent and they have to put up with excessive heat.

Mohammed Karim Jasin of the Al-Hira Maha Vidyalaya refugee camp said that the authorities were now trying to provide temporary shelter with corrugated iron sheets.

He said that the refugees had asked the authorities to provide shelters with thatched roof instead of corrugated iron or tarpaulin shelter because thatch is cooler.

Doctors have also told the BBC Sinhala service that water shortages are becoming a growing problem.

There are nearly 4,000 tsunami refugees in the camps in the Kinniya area.

Inland rush

Meanwhile police in the capital, Colombo, have been giving details of casualties after fear gripped much of the north and east of the island on Monday night when warnings were given of a possible tsunami.

The warnings came after there was a powerful earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.

Three people died of heart attacks and two people died in road accidents in the rush to get inland, police said on Wednesday.

The tsunami alert was withdrawn on Tuesday.