More than 2,000 of people have been killed today as one of the most-powerful earthquakes in years triggered massive tidal waves slammed into coastlines across Asia.

The tidal waves caused devastation across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Thailand.

Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centred off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where at least 94 people were killed by floods and collapsing buildings, officials said.

But the scope of the disaster became apparent only after waves as high as 20ft crashed into coastal villages over a wide area of Sri Lanka – some 1,000 miles west of the epicentre – and killed around 300 people.

Elsewhere, 286 people were confirmed dead in India, 20 in Thailand and seven in Malaysia.

Thousands of people were missing, many of them fishermen at sea, and rescue workers struggled against floodwaters to find and evacuate stranded victims.

The death toll changed by the hour and was expected to grow even higher as more bodies were discovered.

At least 100 bodies were found on various beaches in Madras, the capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and more were expected to be washed in by the sea, officials said.

The US Geological Survey’s website recorded the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra, 1,000 miles northwest of Jakarta. It was centred 25 miles below the seabed. Aftershocks struck in the magnitude 7 range.

The quake was felt unusually far afield, causing buildings to sway hundreds of miles away, from Singapore to the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, and in Bangladesh, hours after the region’s Christian communities had finished Christmas celebrations.

Initial damage centred on Banda Aceh, capital of the Indonesian province of Aceh on northern Sumatra. Dozens of buildings were destroyed, but most of the death toll appeared to come from onrushing floodwaters.

A spokesman for Indonesian state-owned Garuda Airlines said Banda Aceh’s airport – located several miles from the sea – was flooded and planes were unable to land.

In Sri Lanka, more than 100,000 people were affected by the flash flooding, said Rienzie Perera, a police spokesman.

The deaths occurred in the northeastern districts of Muttur and Trincomalee, and floods closed the port in Colombo, the capital.

Holidays turned to disaster in southern Thailand, which welcomes hundreds of thousands of tourists to its southern beaches during the Christmas season. At least 20 people died and hundreds more were missing.

On Phang-Nga island, people sought refuge on rooftops. Cars were carried away by rising waters in neighbouring Krabi island.

At least four of the dead were initially reported to have been tourists swept away by 16ft tidal waves on the popular island of Phuket, but officials later said it was unclear who the dead were or how they had died. At least 30 boatloads of tourists were also reported to have been lost at sea.

In India, at least 286 people were killed and more than 200 fishermen were missing at sea. The navy was evacuating people in low-lying areas of Andhra Pradesh state, but casualties were lower than they could have been because some ports were closed for the weekend.

In Madras, the capital of neighbouring Tamil Nadu state, 27 bodies, presumably of fishermen, were found washed ashore on the popular Marina beach, said the city’s fire services chief, S K Dogra.

Tidal waves also forced the international airport in the Maldives, located off India’s southwestern tip, to close.

In Malaysia, authorities closed some beaches to the public after seven people drowned and two went missing near a beach off the northern city of Penang. The victims were believed to be mainly tourists, a police spokesman said.

Thousands of residents of high-rise hotels and apartments in Penang were temporarily evacuated.

No reports of damage were immediately available. Sumatra is separated from the western coast of peninsular Malaysia by a narrow strait.