A global relief effort was underway after the world's worst earthquake in 40 years triggered monstrous tidal waves which killed over 23,000 people across southern and southeast Asia.
With the death toll constantly rising as dawn showed the full scale of the catastrophe, governments pledged millions in aid and sent naval ships, military aircraft and soldiers on rescue and relief operations.
The United Nations rushed disaster teams to the region, saying hundreds of thousands of people in coastal areas remained at risk, with livelihoods from fishing and farming wiped out and disease threatening to wreak more havoc.
