2004 tsunami is "as if it happened yesterday"

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Survivors of Asia's 2004 tsunami and relatives of its 226,000 victims cried and prayed as they gathered along Indian Ocean shorelines on Friday for memorials to mark the 10th anniversary of a disaster that still leaves an indelible mark on the region.

When a 9.15-magnitude quake opened a fault line deep beneath the ocean on Dec. 26 a decade ago, it triggered a wave as high as 17.4 meters (57 feet) which crashed ashore in more than a dozen countries, wiping some communities off the map in seconds.

Memorials were held in the worst-affected countries - India,Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia - where monks, imams and priests held ceremonies to honor those who perished.

Hundreds gathered in Indonesia's Aceh province, many bursting into tears as poems and songs were heard and a montage was screened showing the devastation from a disaster that killed 126,741 people in Aceh alone.

Harjah Norhayati lost her daughter to the tsunami.