Rumours of second tsunami swirl in Indian villages

Many fishermen on India's tsunami-hit southeast coast say they will stay far away from the shore tomorrow as rumours swirl that another killer wave will batter the region a month after December's disaster.

With memories of the devastation caused by the December 26 tsunami fresh, many coastal residents say they will move inland tomorrow despite attempts by the authorities to dispel the rumours.

"I have heard the next tsunami will come on January 26 and it will completely sink the entire Andaman islands," said Adimulam, a 34-year-old fisherman from Kallar village in southeastern India's Tamil Nadu state.

More than 100 people were killed and 130 houses washed away in Kallar, one of many fishing villages that line the Tamil Nadu coast. The state is home to 62 million people.

Besides the eastern coast of India, the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, 1,200 km away in the Indian Ocean, was badly devastated by the tsunami. Similar rumours among survivors in the island chain are rattling nerves there.

"Everybody says the 26th is a bad day. You had both the tsunami and the Gujarat earthquake on the 26th so we are all scared about this date," Mr Adimulam said.

He was referring to a powerful earthquake in India's western Gujarat state on January 26, 2001, which killed 20,000 people. January 26 is also India's Republic Day, a national holiday.

"I have decided not to go anywhere near the sea on that day."

Authorities have dismissed the rumours as baseless and threatened to arrest anyone spreading them.

But that has done little to ease the fear of survivors, many of them illiterate fishermen.

Kallar is in Nagapattinam district, the worst-hit district in India with more than 6,000 deaths.

"Everybody is scared. If there is another tsunami, you won't find anyone to narrate what happened," said fisherman Ramalingam, standing in front of pile of broken wood and twisted tin sheets that used to be his home.

He is staying in a nearby relief camp. The tsunami triggered by a powerful undersea earthquake off Indonesia, killed more than 234,000 across Asia and Africa. More than 16,000 people were killed in India and tens of thousands were left homeless.

The killer waves not only left a trail of death and destruction. They also inflicted psychological scars.

"We don't want to stay near the sea any longer. Even the sound of the tides scares me," said Mariappan, who lost his wife and a son to the tsunami.

Officials said psychiatrists from voluntary groups were counselling victims such as Mariappan and many other fishermen to help them overcome their fear.

But, clearly, there's lots to be done. "The other day a little boy shouted 'tsunami, tsunami' and people began running for their lives," said 52-year-old Subramanian who has spent most of his life fishing.

"I used to spend almost a month at sea on certain occasions. But after seeing the tsunami, I don't even feel like looking at the sea."