Survivors and relatives of those who died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami are observing Tuesday's second anniversary of the disaster with moments of silence, prayers and low-key ceremonies.
An estimated 230,000 people were killed or went missing when huge waves slammed into 12 countries around the Indian Ocean. The tsunami was caused by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake under the ocean floor off Indonesia's Sumatra island.
Indonesia's northernmost province, Aceh, lost about 167,000 people in the disaster. In Indonesia Tuesday morning, authorities on Bali island held a tsunami drill to test a new alert system and raise public awareness.
Sri Lanka is marking the anniversary with Buddhist prayers for its 35,000 dead, and by erecting the first of 100 coastal towers to warn of impending disasters.
Elsewhere, multi-faith ceremonies are taking place in India, which lost 18,000 people to the tsunami, and in Thailand, where 8,200 people died, about half of them foreign tourists.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.