French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier declared Tuesday evening in Colombo that he will bring back Wednesday evening to Paris the French nationals injured in the tsunamis hitting Southeast Asia, France 2 television reported.
"One hundred and five French people are injured and I will bring back a certain number of them to Paris," said the French minister, who is visiting Sri Lanka and Thailand on Tuesday and Wednesday to show France's solidarity to the stricken people.
He met Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga in Colombo and "tomorrow I will go to Phuket (famous Thai resort) to see other Frenchmen," he said.
The death toll of French nationals killed in Asian tsunamis that triggered by a series of huge undersea earthquakes near the Indonesian island of Sumatra rose to 28, according to French Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.
At least thirty-five bodies were found Tuesday at the ruins of a French-run hotel (Sofitel Magic Lagoon hotel) in south Thailand near the island of Phuket, with 280 of its total 415 guests still missing, French TF1 television quoted the company Accor that owns the property as saying.
Tsunamis triggered by a series of huge undersea earthquakes near the Indonesian island of Sumatra swept across the coastal countries of the Indian Ocean rim Sunday, destroying villages, flooding cities and killing over 55,000 people.