Welsh tourists in quake horror

Daisy Lowe, from the Sri Lankan Association of South Wales, said people were doing what they could to help.

Meanwhile, Welsh tourists have been speaking of their terror when the tsunami hit on Sunday.

And many families in Wales have been anxiously waiting for news of loved ones caught up in the disaster.

International aid efforts have begun amid fears that disease could spread through the disaster zone.

Ms Lowe said she was flying out on Tuesday to assess the situation.

"I would like to investigate what is happening there and what the needs are, so that any relief efforts can be targeted at the right people," she said.

Daisy Lowe is travelling to Sri Lanka on Tuesday

She added they were collecting money, which they would then be donated to the Sri Lankan Red Cross society.

"We do not know what we need - later we will maybe appeal for clothing and goods for shipping to Sri Lanka," she said.

"As Sri Lankans living in Wales, we feel we would like to do our little bit."

One of the people from Wales who was in Sri Lanka when the tragedy happened was Davinder Singh, from Swansea, who said people had been "dumbstruck" by the disaster.

Mr Singh, from the Mount Pleasant area of the city, has been working in Sri Lanka at an elephant sanctuary since November.

"The devastation is unreal - people's homes have been destroyed," he said.

Witnesses say houses crumpled like paper under the waves' force

And Ffion Haf, from Merthyr Tydfil, was on the Thai island of Ko Lanta with her partner.

"It was like something you see in films," she said.

"It was not until it started coming towards the shore that we realised the ferocity of it."

Relatives and friends of travellers from Wales caught up in the chaos are waiting anxiously for news.

An emergency telephone number - 020 7008 0000 - has been set up for those concerned about relatives.

Many thousands of people in countries around the rim of the Indian Ocean have been killed by tidal waves, triggered by the powerful earthquake.