Southern state of Tamil Nadu had reported 1,705 dead by Sunday night with many villages along the Indian Ocean coastline still awaiting help, Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha said, terming the tsunami "an extraordinary natural calamity."

The total death toll in India from tidal waves caused by a massive earthquake rose to 2,606 with 700 people declared missing in the far-flung Adaman and Nicobar islands.

The giant tidal waves triggered by a powerful earthquake in Indonesia swept the coasts of the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, leaving a trail of death and destruction in many other parts of Asia.

The killer waves came unexpectedly, with emergency teams only getting scant warning. Requests for help poured in from across the state.

There were scenes of mayhem in Tamil Nadu's coastal areas where scores of villages were inundated by a wall of seawater that was up to 10 meters (yards) high, knocking down flimsy huts and flooding buildings.

At Madras General Hospital swarms of people wandered the halls in a state of shock including a 75-year-old grandmother who was in her beachfront home on an intravenous drip when the waves hit.

Five young men searched hospitals for their friend Sheikh who was swept away by the waves as they were playing cricket on the beach.

Then they went to the morgue.

"He is not here," said Sanjay Ravi. "I don't know what we are going to do now. We have looked at all the major hospitals, but there's hope as we have not found the body."

As the waters receded, scooters and vehicles, children's toys and house appliances could be seen strewn along beaches and roads, testifying to the waves' violent and random force.

In the sea, cars which had been parked by morning joggers along the landmark Marina beach in state capital Madras bobbed in the water.

Morgues at government hospitals were overflowing with bodies, many of them children. There was a non-stop flow of people entering the hospitals desperately seeking to find their loved ones.

Among the dead were a group of 40 school children who were playing cricket on the beach when a giant wave swept them out to sea. Deaths were also reported from a beachside church.

Television stations repeatedly showed footage of a man carrying the lifeless body of his toddler son across his shoulder, the child's hands dangling limply over his father's back.

Madras police commissioner K. Natraj said the coastguard was having trouble keeping people away from the "dangerous" beaches as the meteorological officials warned there could be more tidal waves over the next two days.

"We've had to be very firm about turning people away. Hordes of relatives are trying to scour the beaches in search of their missing loved ones. Some are so distraught they don't see any danger," said Natraj.

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