13 Canadians died on Thai beaches, officials say

Nearly 500 foreigners, including more than a dozen Canadians, were killed when the tsunami ripped through Thailand's southern tourist resorts, officials said Wednesday.

The Thai government said 473 foreign tourists from 36 countries have been identified among the bodies that litter shorelines around the island of Phuket, including 13 Canadians and 20 Americans.

Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs has only confirmed the deaths of three citizens so far, two in Thailand and a third in Sri Lanka. It said 69 Canadians are missing in total.

Ottawa's envoy to Thailand, Denis Comeau, said at least 40 Canadians have been confirmed missing in Thailand, but warned that officials don't know how many citizens were there.

"As most of these people don't register, we have no way of knowing," the ambassador said. "We know in the past 36 hours, there are about 170 people that we've found."

Thailand's announcement came as the confirmed death toll in the 11 countries hit by Sunday's combined earthquake and tsunami disaster climbed on Wednesday to more than 68,000.

Thai Interior Ministry officials said the waves that wiped out scores of packed restaurants, bars and hotels on its southern beaches hit Sweden hardest. The Scandinavian country lost 54 citizens, followed by Germany at 49 and Britain at 43.

Thailand's official death toll stands at 1,574, but officials expect that tally to jump dramatically. Emergency workers found several thousand bodies on Tuesday along the coast north of Phuket at Khao Lak.

The stretch of beach lined with five-star resorts suffered the worst damage seen anywhere in Thailand. A number of resorts were completely destroyed, along with many of their estimated 5,000 guests.

Soldiers and rescue workers spoke of finding bodies on rooftops and in the trees, as well as more than 1,000 bodies that washed up on the beach and lay baking in the sun.

Bulldozers and backhoes are digging through the mud and uprooted trees looking for more victims.

An Indonesian military official said Wednesday that the waves destroyed three-quarters of the western coastline of the island of Sumatra.

"The damage is truly devastating," Maj.-Gen. Endang Suwarna told the Associated Press. "Seventy-five per cent of the west coast is destroyed, and some places it's 100 per cent. These people are isolated and we will try and get them help."

Indonesian officials said the number of confirmed dead there has topped 32,000, but warned that the number will likely rise further as rescuers reach remote areas.

In a bid to ward off diseases, crews readied bulldozers to dig mass graves Wednesday for thousands of bodies rotting on Sumatra, which took a double hit Sunday as the quake shifted it by about 30 metres and waves swept as far as five kilometres inland.

Nearly 100 doctors arrived Wednesday in the northern province of Aceh, and said they would be setting up four hospitals across the province, which was the area damaged the most in the disaster.

Thousands of people are injured while millions remain homeless in the countries affected by the disaster.

A top World Health Organization official says the threat of disease could take just as many lives as the quake and tsunamis unless clean water and medicine arrive soon.

Sri Lanka on Wednesday listed more than 21,700 people dead, India close to 4,500 -- with 8,000 missing and feared dead. Hundreds more were confirmed dead in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania, Seychelles and Kenya.