The situation is "very grim" and the toll is likely to rise, the official told the agency in the islands' capital Port Blair.

Fresh tremors had hit the Andaman islands early Monday registering up to 6.0 on the Richter scale, H.P. Shukla, meteorologist at the Indian Meteorological Department, told AFP.

"We haven't got any report about damages. We don't have any communication about this from Andaman," he admitted.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie close to the epicentre of the Indonesian earthquake that triggered killer tsunami acorss soutyern Asia on Sunday.

A previous toll from the Andamans had put the number of dead at 1,000 people.