15 years since 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami

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Today marks the 15th anniversary of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, one of the world’s deadliest and most destructive natural disasters, struck over 10 countries in the Indian Ocean.

Accordingly, a two-minute silence will be observed island-wide in Sri Lanka at 9.25 am this morning (26) to commemorate the thousands of people killed in the deadly tidal wave, stated Disaster Management Center (DMC).

Shortly before 08:00 on 26 December 2004, a massive 9.1 magnitude quake struck undersea 160km off Sumatra’s coast, unleashing a 30m wall of water.

In the hours that followed, a massive tsunami fanned out across the Indian Ocean, killing close to 230,000 people.

In Sri Lanka, over 40,000 persons were killed and property worth several million rupees was destroyed by the Tsunami.