January 1, 2005
CNN
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thailand's tsunami death toll could reach 8,000, with more than half of those foreign tourists holidaying in the nation's southern resorts when the disaster struck.
There are more than 3,000 visitors from Sweden among the missing in Thailand, and the Scandinavian nation is braced for what could be the worst natural disaster toll in its history.
Swedes greeted the New Year with a national day of mourning Saturday, flying flags at half-staff and lighting candles for the missing.
Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Saturday many of those who were still listed as missing were likely to be dead.
"Many corpses will be floating in the sea," Thaksin said, according to wire reports.
"Of the 6,500 missing, it is likely that they could mostly be dead as many days have passed."
Thailand's official death count is 4,812.
As the search for bodies continues, Thaksin said his government would investigate why tsunami warnings largely failed to reach officials and tourist resorts.
"We will have to investigate the whole incident, when it happened, why we were not warned," Thakisin said in his weekly radio address.
Officials at the country's meteorological department did issue some warnings before the waves slammed into tourist resorts and fishing villages, but they only got through to a handful of officials, the Associated Press reports.
It is thought around 20,000 Swedes had travelled to Thailand this holiday season, to escape the harsh winter of northern Europe.
While only 59 Swedes have so far been confirmed dead, authorities are fearing this tragedy may well become the worst natural disaster in the nation's history.
With a population of only 9 million, Sweden's expected loss of life proportionately matches that of Indonesia, and is exceeded only by Sri Lanka.
Along with Sweden, other Nordic countries have been hard hit by the tsunamis' impact in Thailand.
In neighboring Denmark, Queen Margrethe started her annual televised New Year's speech by addressing the tsunami disaster that has killed seven Danes and left 466 missing.
"We are just happy tourists seeking a warmer sun and a sea that is more blue than our coasts," the monarch said in her speech aired live on major television and radio channels.
"Let us not only just think of our losses but also of the many thousand people who now must see their whole existence broken into pieces."
Finland is also mourning its dead with 14 believed killed and 194 still missing.
The devastation has hit one Finnish family particularly hard with 14 members of one family swept away while on vacation at the Thai resort of Khao Lak.
Leon Eklof is in Thailand looking for his missing family members, including three of his grandchildren, his daughter and his son-in-law, according to a report in The Australian newspaper.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/thailand.tourist.toll/index.html