The number of people killed in the massive earthquake and tidal waves that struck Indian Ocean shorelines at the weekend has passed 56,000, amid warnings the true toll could be far higher.

In Indonesia, the government's disaster relief centre said at least 27,174 were killed after the country took the full force of the huge earthquake and tidal waves that swallowed entire coastal villages.

In Sri Lanka 17,800 people, including at least 70 foreigners, were killed in Sunday's disaster.

The death toll in India crossed 9,000 with many thousands still missing, officials said.

The death toll includes 4,000 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, close to the epicentre of the Indonesian earthquake that produced the tsunamis, and another 4,500 in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

More than 1,500 people were killed, among them more than 700 foreign tourists, in southern Thailand, officials said. Officials said they feared that most of around 1,500 people still missing were foreign tourists.

In Myanmar at least 90 people were killed, according to the UN, while in Malaysia 65 people, including many elderly and children, were dead, officials said.

At least 55 people including two British holidaymakers were killed in the tourist paradise of Maldives while another 69 were missing, officials said.

In Bangladesh a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized from large waves, local officials said.

Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 100 fishermen were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9.0 on the Richter scale -- making it the largest quake worldwide in four decades.

Death toll

Indonesia: 27,174

Sri Lanka: 17,800

India: 9,233
Thailand: 1,538
Myanmar: 90
Malaysia: 65
Maldives: 55
Bangladesh: 2

Somalia 100
Tanzania 10
Kenya 1

Total: 56,068

-yahoo news

LOst in abyss's darkside uncovered at 1:14 PM