On December 26, 2004, an earthquake off the Indonesian coast measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale triggered gigantic waves that struck all across south Asia including India, Srilanka, Indoesia, Thailand and Maldives.

It caused serious damage and deaths as far as the east coast of Africa and Port Elizabeth in South Africa, 8,000 km away from the epicentre of the earthquake.

With anything between 150,000 to 250,000 people dead (many bodies were washed out to the sea, and hence an exact estimate is near-impossible), it is one of the worst disasters in modern history.

Photograph: Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

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