Toll in the tsunami disaster in India rose to 9,451 Sunday, with more bodies found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands a week after giant tidal waves lashed the shores.

The Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) Sunday quoted a home ministry spokesman as saying that the number of missing had gone up from 3,872 Saturday to 5,511 Sunday evening.

Relief operations were in full swing in tsunami-affected regions in Andamans, Kerala, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu, which together accounted for over 7,000 deaths.

Private agencies, however, have estimated that up to 13,000 people had died in the disaster, which has displaced hundreds of thousands, the report said.

The government denied media reports that a "viral storm" was brewing in the Nicobar Island, which, it said, gave an impression that an outbreak of cholera epidemic was likely.

Source: Xinhua