Holidaymakers have told of their terror after being caught up in the effects of a huge earthquake which killed thousands of people and injured thousands more.

The quake, the worst for 40 years, registered 8.9 on the Richter scale when it struck off the coast off Sumatra, Indonesia, yesterday.

It triggered a tsunami, or tidal wave, across the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal areas of Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Thailand.

Argus photographer Andrea Wright, 31, of Champions Row, Hove, was on holiday with her family in Malaysia when the wave hit Penang and killed between 400 and 500 people.

She said: "The mood is very subdued. Everyone here is very upset and distressed. This has never happened to them before. A lot of the locals have been killed.

"My parents have been down to the town and there are bodies everywhere. Christmas is not really classed as a big day here. Boxing Day is bigger so many people were on the beach when it hit.

"A lot of the locals are quite poor and don't have TV or radio. They would have gone down to the beach on their holidays and would have had very little warning.

"We did not feel anything when the earthquake happened but someone else down the road felt some tremors. We can see the island where the earthquake was from our apartment.

"A couple of days ago we were on the sea in a rickety old boat going to see some monkeys on an island. If that had been two days later we wouldn't have been here. But luckily we are fine.

"It is all over the TV but everything is in Malay so we don't really understand it. We have all been on our mobiles all day. They just keep ringing because everyone is phoning to check we are okay.

"All you can hear is the sound of sirens as the ambulances and police cars are everywhere.

"Gun shots coming from the beach are warning when more tidal waves come. There have been about three so far and the coast road is completely blocked as people drag bodies out of the sea."

People, homes and cars were swept away by the force of the tsunami unleashed by the quake, which was centred off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

So far only one Briton has been confirmed dead. A man on holiday in the Maldives died of a heart attack as the tidal wave struck.

But tourist chiefs believe about 10,000 British holidaymakers could be affected.

Speaking from Thailand, father-of-two Ray Roseman described how he was on the ninth floor of a 33-storey block in Bangkok when the quake struck.

Mr Roseman, 65, of Woodlands Avenue, Hove, was in the Thai capital recovering from a hernia operation when the quake struck.

He said: "I had been to the airport to drop off someone and I got back to the flat and I felt I was moving from side to side.

"I thought I was having a heart attack. If you imagine being on a swing going from side to side. I went out into the hall and heard a crunching noise.

"Most people here had never known anything like it."

Mr Roseman, a retired language school owner, was in an earthquake in Bogota, Colombia, about four years ago.

He said: "The worrying thing here is that the buildings are not made to withstand earthquakes as they are in Bogota. I thought we were going to come crashing down. I am right in the city centre and there are many high buildings - it could have been devastating."

Mr Roseman, who is due to return late tomorrow night to his wife, Marie-Louise, said the quake lasted about 30 seconds.

Bangkok and central Thailand escaped serious damage but the islands and coastal resorts, where thousands of European and British holidaymakers flock, in the east, suffered devastating damage and loss of life.

Government officials said tourists were swept from a beach in Phuket by waves surging as high as 16ft. Other resorts where people were killed were the beach havens of Songkhla, Krabi, Phang Nga and Surat Thani.

High-rise buildings swayed from Singapore to Bangkok but most of the damage occurred in the Indonesian province of Aceh, on the north-western tip of Sumatra island, nearest the epicentre.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the embassy in the capital was open to deal with queries and added: "A team is travelling by road to Phuket to provide assistance but it will be a seven-hour journey as all the airports in Thailand are closed."

A similar team from the UK mission in Sri Lanka has been dispatched to aid the emergency operation.

The Queen said she was "deeply saddened" by the tragedy and asked Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to pass on her condolences and sympathies to the families and countries involved.

The Foreign Office said British Embassy staff throughout South-East Asia were on hand to offer assistance and an emergency phone number has been set up. It is 020 7008 0000.