There were no immediate reports of casualties, but hundreds of villages along the island's eastern sea board as well as towns along the southern coast were affected, police said.

"The police station is also under water here," an officer in Matara, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of here said by telephone.

Reports from the coastal area suggested that a stretch of over 500 kilometres from Trincomalee in the island's east to Galle in the south had been hit by huge tidal waves, but in many places water had receded.