PERALIYA, Sri Lanka — Just inland from the crashing waves on Sri Lanka's palm-fringed shores, the train slowly came to a stop on Thursday, marking the moment a deadly tsunami hit 20 years ago.
Sri Lanka's Ocean Queen Express became a symbol of the biggest natural disaster to hit the South Asian nation in living memory, when the train was struck by the giant waves of Dec. 26, 2004.
PRAY FOR THEM Family members of the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami offer prayers at a memorial monument in Peraliya village, southern Sri Lanka, on Dec. 26, 2024, the 20th anniversary of the disaster. AFP PHOTO