Panic, hunger and raw emotion in Aceh

With dwindling supplies of food and water, barely any electricity or fuel, desperation is rising in the main city of Indonesia's Aceh province, where thousands were killed by tsunami waves crashing kilometres in shore.

Death is everywhere in this once-bustling port city, some 2,000 kilometres northwest of Jakarta, with bloated corpses rotting in the heat as a lack of manpower and equipment hampers efforts to dispose of bodies.

For traumatised survivors, many still hunting for missing loved ones, emotions were raw, with grown men bursting into tears and embracing each other in crowds of refugees cramming the city's airport.

Idrus Ismail said how he was knocked from his motorcycle as he tried to accelerate away from an advancing wall of water six metres high.

He managed to grab a piece of wood but was hit a second time by a another tidal wave.

"I continued to hold the piece of wood and only let it go after I managed to grab the branches of a mango tree. I stayed for hours on the tree until the water receded," Ismail said.

His wife, who had been in a neighbour's car, was still missing.

While many survivors remained in Banda Aceh to search for their relatives, others tried to escape, crowding the airport and queuing under military guard for carefully rationed vehicle fuel.

Among those trying to board planes to flee Aceh, Stephen Kusuma, 21, said he was leaving behind the body of his father whom he watched die before he himself barely escaped racing floodwaters.

"We turned around and started to run but suddently I saw water up to three metres."

Other survivors, expressions glazed, staggered seemingly without purpose, through the streets, clutching bottles of water or pieces of food.