In Madras, on the south coast, chief minister J. Jayalalitha late Sunday announced the latest figures saying the tragedy was an "extraordinary calamity of unprecedented proportions."

She listed Nagapattinam, south of Madras, as the worst-hit district where 788 people died.

On the far-flung Andaman islands at least 300 died and 700 were missing.

"The situation is very grim," Inspector General of Police, Samsher Deol, told the Press Trust of India from the islands' capital Port Blair. "The death toll will go up at least to 1,000.

"Three hundred were confirmed dead in the union territory, mostly in worst-hit Car Nicobar, Deol said.

"Seven hundred were untraced for a long time and believed to be dead," he added.

Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil had earlier said Tamil Nadu was the worst affected state.

Patil said more than 200 people also died in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

About 280 people died in the Pondicherry area as thousands of poor fishermen's huts were swept away, the union territory's chief minister N. Rangasamy said, adding the toll was likely to rise.

At least 121 people were killed in the southern Indian state of Kerala, chief minister Oomen Chandy told reporters. At least 97 of the deaths in Kerala were in the district of Kollam.

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