Boxing Day Tsunami: countries remember the dead - Telegraph.co.uk

"The disaster was also an awakening - to be aware of our environment and to continue to be vigilant and understand how to deal with disasters.

"Learning from our experience, we call for strengthening of solidarity in handling disasters to lighten the load of disaster victims across the world.

Mosques also held prayers across the province early on Friday while people visited the mass graves - the resting place of many of Indonesia's 170,000 tsunami dead.

In southern Thailand, where half of the 5,300 dead were foreign tourists, a smattering of holidaymakers gathered at a memorial park in the small fishing village of Ban Nam Khem, in a reminder of the global scale of the disaster.

Agnes Moberg, 18, from Sweden, which lost more than 500 of its nationals, said: "Everyone knew someone affected by the tsunami, I knew people too. We want to show our respect

."

Nearby, Somjai Somboon, 40, said she was yet to get over the loss of her two sons, who were ripped from their house when the waves cut into Thailand.

"I remember them every day," she told AFP, with tears in her eyes.

The scale of the tragedy emerged in the hours and days after the waves struck.

Disaster-stricken nations struggled to mobilise a relief effort, leaving bloated bodies to pile up under the tropical sun or in makeshift morgues.

The world poured money and expertise into the relief and reconstruction, with more than $13.5 billion (£8.7 billion) collected in the months after the disaster.

Almost $7 billion in aid went into rebuilding more than 140,000 houses across Aceh, thousands of kilometres of roads, and new schools and hospitals.

Tens of thousands of children were among the dead.

In Sri Lanka , where 31,000 people perished, preparations were under way to hold a memorial at a railway site where waves crashed into a passenger train, killing 1,500 people.

Ahead of the ceremony a train guard who survived told AFP a lack of knowledge of tsunamis - in a region which had not experienced one in living memory - led to more deaths than necessary.

Wanigaratne Karunatilleke, 58, said: "We had about 15 minutes to move the passengers to safety. I could have done it. We had the time, but not the knowledge."

To plug that gap a pan-ocean tsunami warning system was established in 2011, made up of sea gauges and buoys, while individual countries have invested heavily in disaster preparedness.

But experts have cautioned against the perils of "disaster amnesia" creeping into communities vulnerable to natural disasters.

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