A mass grave containing the remains of hundreds of victims of the devastating 2004 tsunami has been unearthed near Banda Aceh.
The burial site was found during an inspection of land ahead of the building of a clinic in a village on the northwestern tip of the island of Sumatra.
Locals in the village of Kahju say there are hundreds of burial sites in the area that were not clearly marked when tsunami victims were buried quickly to avoid disease in the wake of the disaster.
The tsunami in 2004, also referred to as the “Boxing Day Tsunami”, killed more than 230,000 people in 14 countries, when massive waves swept over huge areas of Southeast Asia, displacing millions and destroying infrastructure worth billions.
The worst hit country was Indonesia, suffering more death and destruction than any other, when the Indian Ocean earthquake was followed by a tsunami on December 26.
Indonesia suffered at least 167,000 casualties in the single worst tsunami in human history. That number could be even higher, but it is unlikely that this will ever be confirmed because thousands of bodies were not recovered having been swept out to sea by the powerful waves.
The tsunami was the effect of an underwater earthquake in the Indian Ocean just after 1am on Boxing Day 2004, the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph, with a magnitude of 9.0-9.3.
Source: Daily Mail