Hands stick out of coffins at a temple in Takuapa, Thailand. (AFP)

Galle (Sri Lanka), Dec. 28 (Reuters): Survivors in seven countries on the shores of the Indian Ocean scrabbled frantically through debris and devastation for their loved ones today as the death toll climbed inexorably past 50,000

The scale of the destruction caused by Sunday?s monster tsunami left governments helpless and groping for succour. On coastline after coastline, the sea disgorged the dead and rescuers fought through a morass of wreckage, mud and body parts. The UN said the disaster was unique in encompassing such a large area and so many countries.

Authorities waited in trepidation for the outbreak of diseases caused by polluted drinking water and the sheer scale of thousands of putrefying bodies. Many of the dead were children, and television screens and newspapers were full of images of grief-stricken parents.

In Sri Lanka, which appeared worst hit, the government said more than 18,700 people were confirmed dead and officials fear the toll will hit 25,000.

Indonesia said the death toll on Aceh island had reached 7,072. Along Khao Lak beach on the Thai mainland north of Phuket island, a magnet for Scandinavian and German tourists, miles of shattered hotels began yielding up their dead, bloated, gashed and mangled bodies ? at least 770 dead, many of them Thai.

Officials fear the figure could rise above 60,000. Indonesia said its toll could hit beyond 27,174, while Sri Lankan officials warned up to 25,000 people may have died there. Thailand said its toll may exceed 2,000.

?There are lots of dead foreigners because it is during our high season and Christmas. It is a family vacation time,? Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.

Only 112 dead foreigners had been identified. They included 22 French people, 13 Norwegians, 12 Britons, 11 Italians and 10 Swedes, 9 Japanese and 8 Americans, as well as tourists from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and Taiwan.

The extent of the catastrophe and the human toll became clearer as rescue teams began to reach remote areas.

Police say at least 5,000 people are confirmed or presumed dead in the group of more than 550 islands bordering Myanmar and Indonesia.

Residents in Sri Lanka?s southern port city of Galle, strewn with the twisted wreckage of buses, toppled buildings and the debris of people's lives, surveyed the scene in disbelief.

?Look around,? said jeweller Ifti Muaheed, who lost tens of thousands of dollars? worth of precious gems to the deluge and faced restarting his generations-old business from scratch. ?This will take months, maybe years to sort out.?

Bodies littered the streets in northern Indonesia, closest to Sunday?s giant earthquake. About 1,000 people lay where they were killed when a tsunami struck as they watched a sports event. ?I was in the field as a referee. The waves suddenly came in and I was saved by God ? I got caught in the branches of a tree,? said Mahmud Azaf, who lost his three children. ?This was the worst day in our history,? said Sri Lankan businessman Y.P. Wickramsinghe as he picked through the rubble of his sea-front shop.