(With each new minute the news got worse) Five years ago this weekend, the worst earthquake and Tsunami in recorded history devastated a wide area
December 28, 2009

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(With each new minute the news got worse)

Five years ago this weekend, the worst earthquake and Tsunami in recorded history devastated a wide area around the Indian Ocean. The initial quake was felt as far away as South Africa - with a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3 the initial reports were sketchy. At first the death toll was thought to be in the hundreds and then the thousands. In the end it will probably never be known how many died - the latest estimate, some five years later puts it at over 300,000 people with untold billions of dollars in damage.

Even as reports were coming in and the news was becoming more grim by the minute, there were those who thought it wasn't all that bad. That tourism would come back to the region and everything would be back to normal in "three days".

Here is a group of news broadcasts between December 26 and 27th from the BBC World Service and Thai Radio, giving some hint at what was unfolding before a horrified world during the first 25 hours.

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