KARACHI, Jan 18: Geologist Dr Athar Ali Khan has underlined the need for putting in place an early warning system for tsunamis in the region.

Speaking at a function organized by a local non-governmental organization on Tuesday to donate relief goods to Sri Lanka and Indonesia, Dr Khan said that unlike wind-generated waves which moved over the surface of water, tsunamis travelled under the surface of water at an average speed of 500 miles an hour.

"Due to what is called steepness in technical parlance, a tsunami passes unnoticed in the deep sea. It can travel across the Pacific Ocean in less than one day," he said. He said that a reliable warning system would detect the occurrence of a tsunami and then geologists could calculate the travel time.

Dr Aliya Rehman, a professor of Karachi University who was vacationing in the Fiji Islands in the Pacific Ocean when the Dec 26 tsunami pummelled the region, said hers was the only multi-storey hotel in the beachfront which had previously been criticized for having destroyed the skyline of the place.

"At around eight o'clock in the morning, a couple of tremors pounded the beach. A few hours later, water receded quite a lot, so much so that an elderly native of the place got suspicious and started urging picnickers to leave. All of a sudden, water rushed to the shore.

Just as people ran to safety, a huge wave emerged from the sea and gushed towards the beach. We were standing in the balcony of a single-storey building and saw the killer wave engulf palm trees and other wooden buildings as it roared towards our building. Scared, we just waited for the wave to submerge us.

But it had lost momentum because it was carrying the debris of devastated hotels and market places. Somehow we survived. But we saw helpless hands emerge from water and heads bob up and down as tsunami victims struggled to survive," she recalled.

Sindh tourism minister Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani, Federal Urdu University vice chancellor Dr Iqbal Mohsin, former chairman of the National Press Trust Qutbuddin Aziz and others also spoke. Schoolchildren handed over relief goods to the consul generals of Sri Lanka and Indonesia.