Top 100,000 Reeking corpses rotted

Reeking corpses rotted in the tropical sun from India to Indonesia on Wednesday and many who escaped death from one of the worst tsunamis in history fought for survival against thirst and disease.

Rescuers scoured remote coastlines around the Indian Ocean for survivors of Sunday's colossal seawater surge triggered by an earthquake that caused an arc of death across southern Asia and may have made the world wobble on its axis.

"I would not be at all surprised that we will be on 100,000 (deaths) when we know what has happened on the (Indian) Andaman and Nicobar islands," Peter Rees of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.

The federation currently puts the death toll at 77,828