BANDA ACEH: Tearful mourners prayed and lit candles on Thursday at ceremonies across Asia to remember the 220,000 people killed two decades ago when a tsunami hit coastlines around the Indian Ocean in one of the world’s worst disasters.

Under the shade of trees at a mass grave in Indonesia's Aceh province, survivors and mourners recited Islamic prayers, commemorating the deaths of tens of thousands killed when a tsunami decimated the area two decades ago.

On December 26, 2004, a powerful earthquake off the coast of Aceh in Indonesia triggered a series of waves that inundated coastal communities and killed 230,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India,

Tearful mourners prayed and lit candles on Thursday at ceremonies across Asia to remember the 220,000 people killed two decades ago when

At one in Ulee Lheue village, where 14,000 unidentified victims are buried, families of those killed by the tsunami wept and placed flowers. There were similar memorial ceremonies in Ban Nam Khem, a small fishing town in Thailand that was among those most devastated by the tsunami in the country,

Infrastructure in Aceh has been rebuilt and is now more resilient than before the tsunami struck. Early warning systems have been installed in coastal areas to alert residents of incoming