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Tsunami claims 100 tourists

by Anjana Gamage

One hundred foreign tourists have been confirmed dead and 64 are still reported missing in last Sunday's tidal wave disaster, said the Secretary to the Tourism Ministry Dr. P. Ramanujam addressing a press conference held yesterday at the Tourism Ministry Auditorium. According to him 47 hotels in the Southern province specially in the coastal belt have been totally destroyed. The cost of the damage is not yet estimated. The Yala Safari Lodge was worst affected. Only the two parapet walls are left.

"A large number of foreigners who were vacationing in Sri Lanka especially in the Southern Coastal area have been affected. Meanwhile Deputy Minister of Tourism Arjuna Ranatunga said that the President has taken a firm decision after the disaster not to allow anyone to build houses or any other construction along the coastal belt.

"The President has directed a halt to unauthorised constructions along the coastal line. We are expected to resettle these affected people in the lands belonging to the government," he said.

Minister Ranatunga also admitted that according to the statistics they have received from the tour operators around 6,000 tourists were vacationing during the weekend in the hotels of these affected areas.

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