Boxing Day Tsunami: survivors and bereaved relatives honour the dead

Описание: Survivors of the Boxing Day Tsunami, along with bereaved relatives hold a memorial service on a beach in Thailand to remember the events of ten years ago that left more than a quarter million people dead in one of modern history's worst natural disasters

More than a hundred survivors of the Asian tsunami, along with bereaved relatives from Germany, Austria and Switzerland held a memorial service on a beach in Southern Thailand on Friday to remember the events of ten years ago.

Some walked into the waves and lay flowers in the warm Andaman Sea waters, while embassy staff placed wreaths from their embassies on the sands.

People from 38 nations lost their lives when the tsunami struck the Thai coastline on 26 December 2004. The German casualties were among the worst; around 550 of their nationals died. Only the Swedes suffered a greater loss.

Among those attending was 32-year-old Anne Weyrauch from Hamburg. She lost two relatives.

"The event was incredibly beautiful. It was very dignified and mirrored exactly the way one felt, the way I felt," she said.

Claudia Geist from Xanten near Dusseldorf was so badly injured when the tsunami struck she almost lost her leg.

On Friday she said she hadn't expected to be so moved by the anniversary, but it had been, she said, a "completely different experience now connecting with all the other people."

Before the participants laid their flowers there was an hour-long service in a marquee on the beach, a time of quiet contemplation for those who had so much to remember.

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