from cnn.com
NEW DELHI, India -- Nine people who survived the December 26 earthquake and tsunami in southern Asia have been rescued on a remote island off the coast of India, officials in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands said.
The five men, two women and two children were found in a forest on Great Nicobar on Wednesday, according to a police source. The survivors were hungry, weak and emaciated, the source said.
They lived by eating wild boar and coconuts, the police source said, and none appears to have any serious health problems.
The inspector leading the search party called the rescue "a miracle."
The group is now in Campbell Bay and is receiving medical treatment, the source said.
More than 154,000 people were killed when the killer wave washed ashore several countries. India's government has said 10,749 were killed in that country and 5,640 are missing -- 5,554 on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Great Nicobar island, located in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, is also known as Campbell Bay, after its only town. It is just 225 kilometers (140 miles) from Banda Aceh, the worst-hit area in Indonesia. Many of the island's villages were wiped out.
"They were sitting in the forest when we saw them, and they just ran to us, without saying anything," Inspector Shaukat Hussain told The Associated Press.
"They seemed happy, yes, but there was no hugging and tears and shouting in joy and all that."
The oldest survivor was a 65-year-old man; the youngest an 11-year-old girl, he said.
"They seemed weak but OK. They said they had eaten coconuts, boars and wild shoots. They hunted to stay alive," Hussain said.
"We found them not too far from where we found a dead body and cremated it."
Hussain was leading a police team to look for bodies. Twelve kilometers (eight miles) into the island's hinterlands, the survivors were spotted, he told AP.
The tribespeople were all residents of the island's Pillowbhabhi village on the western coast.
"When the tsunami came, they had climbed on to a hill. They kept walking, they got lost, and were wandering in the forest, resting, then walking again," Hussain said. "They traveled from the western side of the island to the eastern side until we saved them."
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