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LALOMANU, Samoa - Emergency workers Thursday gave up hope of finding more survivors from the horrific Samoan tsunami as survivors buried their dead and cleared debris from the disaster that killed at least 155.
While thousands of homeless huddled in makeshift hillside camps, officials said the massive international aid effort had switched from rescuing people to recovering bloated corpses.
Horrified aid workers found the bodies of at least five children in one Samoan village Thursday, including one who had been tossed into a tree by the force of the tsunami.
Heartbroken families came to collect the children for burial.
"It's no longer a rescue effort, its more like recovery and finding out what's happened in some remote villages," a Samoan disaster management official told AFP.
"There are a lot of homeless people, thousands probably. Eighteen percent of the entire population is affected in some way."
Samoa declared a national disaster after Tuesday's giant 8.0 magnitude earthquake -- the worst in 90 years -- churned up waves between three and 7.5 metres high which pounded sleepy South Pacific villages and popular tourist resorts.
"I don't think anybody's going to be found alive at this point," Guretti Wulf, head of Red Cross relief operations at Lalomanu village hospital, told AFP.
As emergency workers hauled bodies from the sea and the wreckage of crumpled buildings, families buried their loved ones quickly, often in unmarked graves.
Funeral processions wound their way through the streets of Apia as officials battled to count the dead in the Samoan capital's overflowing mortuary.
In the once-idyllic tourism hotspot of Lalomanu, where the five dead children were found, the body of a Western woman was pulled from the rubble of a resort.
A New Zealand air force Orion flew up and down the coast looking for bloated bodies swept out to sea as it scoured the debris-strewn shoreline, officials said.
The disaster's confirmed death toll across the South Pacific stood at 155, but disaster officials said they feared up to 150 people may have been killed in Samoa alone, which would bring the total number dead to 190.
At least 115 people are confirmed dead in Samoa, 31 were killed in neighbouring American Samoa and nine died in Tonga.
"The number of dead is higher," a Samoan official said. "Some villagers have buried their relatives quickly."
"There are still a lot of families searching in the mangrove areas and the Orion is undertaking the sea search. They are still finding more bodies."
Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said the tragedy could have been even worse if the tsunami had struck at night.
"If it had come in the dark and the tide was high, the number of people (who) died would have been far, far greater," he said.
A powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck the region, one of scores of aftershocks that have sent survivors scurrying for higher ground.
Aid workers carried out a door-to-door survey of the missing, as anxious relatives feared the worst.
They also handed out tents and blankets to stricken villagers as emergency help arrived from Australia and New Zealand and fears of disease stalked those left homeless.
But in a rare lighter moment, a two-day-old baby boy who survived the deadly waves was named 'Tsunami' in honour of his feat.
- AFP/vm/ir
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