Tourists flee from holiday nightmare

With the scale of the catastrophe becoming more evident by the hour, travellers were abandoning their holidays in the sun.

Texan Sara Rooney counted herself lucky to be alive after a wall of water slammed into Krabi's popular Railey beach of Thailand, tearing dozens of bungalows to shreds, tossing boats like matchsticks and leaving the tiny resort isolated.

Rooney said, "There is no food, no water. No one wants to stay."

Nina Hobart, who travelled from her native England for a holiday with her husband, told AFP at the airport in Krabi she was leaving one day after her arrival.

"We just arrived yesterday, but we are turning around to leave as soon as we can, because it's just not safe for us," said Hobart.

Governments and relief agencies set up crisis cells and hotlines and offered help to the countries swept by the giant tsunamis, as they prepared to send planes to bring their citizens home.

Travel agencies and government officials in various European capitals said up to 10,000 British tourists may have been affected, more than 5,000 Italians, up to 5,000 French, at least 4,000 Germans, more than 2,500 Swiss, some 2,000 Poles, over 1,000 Belgians and a similar number of Greeks.

Hundreds of rescue ships, helicopters and planes have been mobilised to move foreign visitors, estimated by a tourism official as topping 100,000, who had packed into southern Thailand's resorts for Christmas and New Year.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, overseeing the rescue operations, vowed to fly any foreign visitor in need back to his or her country free of charge.