Disaster struck the Indian coast with terrifying force just after dawn Sunday as the Indonesian earthquake that measured 8.9 on the Richter scale sent tsunamis surging westwards, sweeping men, women and children out to sea.

Worst hit was southeastern Tamil Nadu state where Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha said at least 1,705 had been killed by the wall of water that swamped villages, towns and cities, causing scenes of grief and mayhem.

"It's an extraordinary natural calamity of unprecedented proportions," she told reporters as India launched a massive relief effort. "Everything happened within 20 minutes."

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

In the far-flung islands of Andaman and Nicobar, some 250 kilometersmiles) from the northern tip of Indonesia, the epicentre of the quake, 300 were confirmed killed and 700 feared dead, Inspector General of Police, Samsher Deol told the Press Trust of India.

"The situation is very grim. The death toll will go up at least to 1,000," he said.

Warships headed to the Andamans to reach thousands of inhabitants in cut off from communications by the disaster.

Many of the dead or missing along the Indian coast were fishermen and their families living in flimsy shacks.

"I am cursed with a long life," said 70-year-old Jayanti Lakshmi, wailing over the bodies of her twin grandsons and only son in hard-hit Cuddalore, a Tamil Nadu coastal town 250 kilometres (155 miles) south of Madras.

"My daughter-in-law and I had gone shopping so we weren't home when the sea entered our hut. I wish I had died instead of the others, my daughter-in-law would have a life -- I can't bear to watch her pain."

India's Home Minister Shivraj Patil said some 200 people had been killed as raging waters engulfed coastal areas in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

Witnesses said thousands of people were fleeing along the coast in southern India, fearing further waves from aftershocks.

"Many aftershocks are still coming and more are expected," said the head of the earthquake division of the Indian Meteorological Department, A.K. Shukla.

In the Tamil Nadu capital Madras, morgues at government hospitals overflowed with bodies and the dead were being piled into ambulances and trucks.

Among the dead were schoolchildren swept away as they played cricket on the beach. Worshippers at a beachside church were also reported among the dead.

"Entire fishing villages have been wiped out in parts of Tamil Nadu," said national member of parliament A.K.S. Vijayan from Nagapattinam, one of the worst-hit communities.

Some 280 people died in the former French enclave of Pondicherry, south of Madras, as thousands of fishermens' huts were swept away, the union territory's chief minister N. Rangasamy said.

At least 121 died in Kerala, most in Kollam district, the state's chief minister Oomen Chandy told reporters.

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam appealed for calm.

"I request the people to remain calm and cooperate with relief teams so that relief reaches the needy," said Kalam.

"This is the time that one billion people must face this tragedy as one nation," he said, calling on private organisations to assist.

He described the events as a "national tragedy" and said he was closely following the relief work.

India also sent warships, helicopters and aircraft to distribute food, medicines and blankets to neighbouring Sri Lanka, where at least 4,300 people were killed.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he had offered aid to other affected Indian Ocean states "conveying to them our deepest sympathies and also offering whatever assistance we can.

The quake forced authorities to shut down the Indira Gandhi Atomic Energy Centre in Kalpakkam, 70 kilometres south of Madras, as a precaution, although they said no damage was done to the facility.

"All safety precautions have been taken and the Kalpakkam atomic plant is fully safe," a government official said.

The European Commission offered emergency aid of three million euros (four million dollars) for victims of the tidal waves.

It was the worst natural disaster to strike India since 20,000 people died when western Gujarat state was hit by a brutal earthquake in January 2001, according to government figures.

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