Credit: Sky
The Boxing Day tsunami which devastated Asia killed four times as many females as men, new figures reveal. Women were caught waiting on the beaches for fishermen or at home looking after the children.
Research carried out by Oxfam shows the pattern was the same in in Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka. It surveyed eight villages in two districts of Aceh in Indonesia, one of the worst-hit areas.
In four villages in Aceh Besar district, only 189 of 676 survivors were female. In four villages in North Aceh district, 284 out of 366 deaths were female - equivalent to 77%.
A staggering 80% of those who died in Kuala Cangkoy in North Aceh were women. India suffered a similar fate, with three times as many women (391) being killed as men (146) in Cuddalore district.
In one Indian village, Pachaankuppam, the only people who died were female. The story is similar in Sri Lanka where the number of male survivors in emergency camps far outweigh the women.
Another reason suggested for the high proportion of female deaths is that they could not swim as as well or climb trees quickly enough to escape. | 
