Sri Lanka struggles with havoc

Burials were carried out along the southern coastal areas, with the first in the town of Matara, 160 kilometres south of Colombo, as mortuaries had no refrigeration to preserve the bodies rapidly piling up.

"By noon we have cleared the corpses because most have decomposed to a point where identification was not possible," a police official in Matara said by telephone.

Even as he spoke, relief workers came across carriages from a train that was washed away by giant waves that ripped up some 130 kilometres of railway track and washed away three key bridges, officials said.

"At least 100 bodies (of train passengers) have been found so far. Two more carriages have been located, but we are yet to get at the bodies inside," a local official in Meethiyagoda, about 90 kilometres south of here said.

He said they expected the total casualties from the train to exceed 1,500. Road access to the area was cut off.

The train was travelling from the capital Colombo to the southern town of Galle, when it was swept off the rails Sunday in the tsunamis that lashed Sri Lanka's coastline.

The Tiger rebels, who run a de facto separate state in parts of the north, mounted an unprecedented relief operation, but their resources were scarce and they appealed for help.

The Sri Lankan government offered their foes whatever assistance was needed to care for the displaced and the wounded.

"We need to forget differences and get on with taking care of the problem," government minister Susil Premajayantha said. "We are sending officials and supplies to LTTE-controlled areas as well."

The rebel-held areas of Thalayadi and Mullaitivu where the Tigers have their main military bases had a high number of fatalities.

Relief workers in the island's southern districts of Galle, Matara and Hambantota said they were still finding bodies.

"In some places, entire fishing villages have been washed away and we don't have any survivors who can give an account of how many would have been there," a police official in Galle said when contacted on a mobile phone.

The southern wildlife sanctuary of Yala was also severely battered with a large number of both local and foreign tourists unaccounted for, police said.

Wildlife department officials said 250 four-wheel drive vehicles had taken tourists to the sanctuary on Sunday, but only 30 returned. Others were missing, and presumed washed away by the giant waves.

Among the missing was the country's director general of the securities and exchanges commission.

The relief operation focused on clearing main trunk routes to the island's south.

Tourists were being evacuated from the troubled region by buses to the capital Colombo to catch flights home. Almost all tourist hotels along the coast were affected.