Between 4,000 to 5,000 Frenchmen areon vacation in the Asian quake areas and their first repatriation is scheduled on Monday, French CETO tour-operators association (CETO) announced on Sunday.

Grouping France's major tour-operators, CETO confirmed that some 2,000 to 2,500 of their customers are in the region and addedthat the number would be doubled in addition of individual tourists.

According to director of CETO, Rene-Marc Chiki, French tour operators count currently for some 1,000 travelers in Maldives, 500 in Thailand, 300 in Sri Lanka and 200 in South India.

The first repatriation will be made on Monday with two A330 Airbus planes, one to take off Sunday evening and the other on Monday from Paris for Maldives, said Chiki, quoted by Agence France Presse (AFP).

Tourists in Phuket (Thailand) will be gathered in Bangkok in order to return to France by regular flights, he said, adding thatall travels to the stricken region would be suspended by the end of the year.

Paris airport administration announced earlier in the day that no flight scheduled till Monday morning for the tidal waves stricken region were to be cancelled.

An 8.9-magnitude underwater earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Sunday morning. The quake and its aftershocks triggered tsunamis which hit India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and four other Asian countries. The death toll from the disasters has surpassed the mark of 10,000.