Criminals around the world take advantage of dead and missing

Reports and warnings from as far apart as Sri Lanka, Thailand and Hong Kong told of criminals taking advantage of the chaos to rape survivors in Sri Lanka and plunder the homes of European tourists reported missing.

A women’s group in Sri Lanka claimed rapists were attacking homeless survivors.

"We have received reports of incidents of rape, gang rape, molestation and physical abuse of women and girls in the course of unsupervised rescue operations and while resident in temporary shelters," said the Women and Media Collective group.

Domestic abuse and sexual crimes against women are a growing problem in Sri Lanka, and the country’s highways are dotted with government billboards exhorting Sri Lankan men to show women more respect.

In Thailand, thieves disguised as police and rescue workers have looted luggage and hotel safes around Khao Lak beach, where the tsunami killed up to 3,000 people.

The United Nations warned of the danger of pirates hindering its relief efforts off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, which took the brunt of the Boxing Day tsunami.

Sweden is the hardest hit country outside the devastated region, with more than 2,500 missing and 52 confirmed dead. It withheld some names after homes were targeted by thieves.

"It is unfortunately a reality that people who are known to be missing have had their homes gone through and partly emptied," Lars Danielsson, the state secretary, told local radio.

Swedish police could not give details of such break-ins, but said similar incidents of looting had occurred after the sinking of the Estonia, which killed 551 Swedes in 1994.

"That is the reason we are so careful about distributing the names this time," a police spokeswoman said.

In Norway, police were on the alert for attempts by criminals to get their names on the list of victims to obtain a new identity or to commit insurance fraud.

Kjersti Oppen, of the National Crime Investigation Service, said the list of missing Norwegians was being checked for names of people with criminal records or large debts. Similar fraud occurred after the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001.

In Hong Kong, where residents are contributing generously to the relief effort, the charity Oxfam warned of a bogus fundraising e-mail that has been circulating in its name asking people to send donations to a bank account in Cyprus.

Looting was also reported in Sri Lanka, which, with almost 30,000, has the second-biggest death toll of the tsunami disaster after Indonesia.

Cameras and mobile phones from a hotel; tables and chairs from homes; even a shotgun from a government office were among plundered items. Several arrests have been made.

"Villagers are plundering whatever they can get hold of," said MK Sugadadasa, a senior police officer in the devastated south of Sri Lanka.

In the capital of Indonesia’s Aceh province, Banda Aceh, a building caught fire after looters tried to steal gas bottles from a stricken yacht. The bottles caught fire and the blaze spread, adding to the chaos of the situation there.

Meanwhile, on the Andaman islands, hundreds of fishermen protested after radio broadcasts said they would not be allowed to go out to sea or sell fish because of fears that the fish had been feeding on the corpses of the tsunami victims.