BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The death toll in the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster soared above 120,000 on Thursday as millions scrambled for food and fresh water and thousands more fled in panic to high ground on rumors of new waves.

The mercilessness of Asia's tsunami grew clearer on Thursday as worst-hit Indonesia sharply raised its death toll, taking the number of fatalities around the whole Indian Ocean region above 120,000. Health Ministry sources told Reuters just under 80,000 had died in Indonesia's northern Aceh province that was close to the undersea quake, some 28,000 more than previously announced. Two sources said the toll would be officially announced soon. In this photo, an ethnic Indonesian Chinese woman and her daughters walk past a shopping complex damaged by quake-triggered tidal waves in Banda Aceh, Indonesia on December 30, 2004. Photo by Alres Alia/Reuters

Aid agencies warned many more, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka, could die in epidemics if shattered communications and transport hampered what may prove history's biggest relief operation.

Rescue workers pressed on into isolated villages shattered by a disaster that could yet eclipse a cyclone that struck Bangladesh in 1991, killing 138,000 people.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called for an emergency meeting of the Group of Eight so that the rich nations club could discuss aid and possible debt reduction following "the worst cataclysm of the modern era."

The total toll had shot up more than 50 percent in a day with still no clear picture of conditions in some isolated islands and villages around India and Indonesia.

While villagers and fishermen suffered devastation, losses among foreign tourists, essential to local economies, mounted.

Prime Minister Goran Persson said more than 1,000 Swedes may have been killed in the disaster.

Indonesian Health Ministry sources told Reuters just under 80,000 had died in the northern Aceh province that was close to the undersea quake, some 28,000 more than previously announced. Two sources said the toll would be officially announced soon.

THE FASTEST GET THE FOOD

The airport of the main city, Banda Aceh, was busy with aid flights, but residents said little was getting through to them. Hungry crowds jostling for aid biscuits besieged people delivering them in the town. Some drivers dared not stop.

"Some cars come by and throw food like that. The fastest get the food, the strong one wins. The elderly and the injured don't get anything. We feel like dogs," said Usman, 43.

Residents of the city fled their homes when two aftershocks revived fresh memories of the worst earthquake in 40 years.

"I was sleeping, but fled outside in panic. If I am going to die, I will die here. Just let it be," said Kaspian, 26.

Rumors, unfounded, of another tsunami swept to the seaboard of Sri Lanka and India, highlighting the continued tension across the stricken region four days after the quake.

The Indian government issued a precautionary alert for all areas hit by the weekend's killer wave.

Police sirens blared on beaches in Tamil Nadu, one of the worst hit states in a country that has lost 13,000, as thousands streamed inland on foot or crammed any vehicle they could find. "Waves are coming! Waves are coming," some shouted.

This time, however, the waves did not come.

There were similar scenes in Sri Lanka, where over 27,000 have been killed. Thousands fled inland from the eastern coast.

"This isn't just a situation of giving out food and water. Entire towns and villages need to be rebuilt from the ground up," said Rod Volway of CARE Canada, whose emergency team was one of the first into Aceh.

The world pledged $220 million in cash and sent a flotilla of ships and aircraft laden with supplies.

"As many as 5 million people are not able to access what they need for living," said David Nabarro, head of a World Health Organization (WHO) crisis team.

Many villages and resorts are now mud-covered rubble, blanketed with the stench of corpses after the 9.0 magnitude quake.

Thousands of bodies rotting in the tropical heat were tumbled into mass graves, but health officials said polluted water posed a much greater threat than corpses.

Holiday-makers were among those caught by surprise. Nearly 5,000 foreigners -- half from Sweden and Germany -- are missing, many in Thailand, where 710 foreigners have been confirmed dead.

AID CHAOS

Authorities warned of many deaths from dysentery, cholera and typhoid fever caused by contaminated food and water, and malaria and dengue fever carried by mosquitoes.

Indonesian aircraft dropped food to isolated areas in Aceh on northern Sumatra, an island the size of Florida -- areas that may not be reached by land for days.

In Sri Lanka's worst-hit area Ampara, residents ran things themselves, going around with loudhailers, asking people to donate pots and pans, buckets of fresh water and sarongs.

"Frustration will be growing in the days and the weeks ahead," said U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland.

The United Nations prepared what could be its largest appeal for donations to cope with its biggest relief effort.

The United States said a pledge of $35 million was just a start, and sent an aircraft carrier group toward Sumatra and other ships including a helicopter carrier to the Bay of Bengal.

Financial costs, estimated at up to $14 billion, are tiny relative to the human suffering. By comparison, Hurricane Andrew killed 50 people in 1992 but, with much of the damage in the United States, cost around $30 billion.

In the Thai resort turned graveyard of Khao Lak, the grim task of retrieving bodies was interrupted briefly when a tremor cleared the beach of people in a flash.

Dutch, German and Swiss forensic teams flew to Thailand to help identify now hard to recognize bodies by collecting dental evidence, DNA samples, fingerprints, photographs and X-rays.

Preserving bodies was an urgent need and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra promised to provide refrigerated containers.

In north Sri Lanka, survivors recovering corpses faced a new danger -- floating land mines from a long-running conflict.

Animals seem to have escaped the disaster, adding weight to notions they possess a "sixth sense" for disasters, experts said.

© Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd

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