Denmark mourns its tsunami dead

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Denmark has held a national day of mourning for victims of the Asian tsunami disaster a week ago.

Shoppers and workers stopped to observe a two-minute silence.

Thousands of Europeans caught in the disaster are still missing, and some countries may have suffered their worst death toll in modern peacetime.

Nordic countries have been worst hit in Europe. Nearly 100 Danes are dead or missing - and 3,000 other Scandinavians are either killed or unaccounted for.

There was better news for some of the countries on Sunday, as figures for the number of missing were revised downwards.

More than 500 Swedes were taken off the missing list, and more than 200 Danes.

Dead brought home

Flags in Denmark flew at half-mast on Sunday, and the prime minister and royal family attended a memorial ceremony.

"It is like a long nightmare from which one cannot wake up," Bishop Erik Normann Svendsen said during the 45-minute service at Our Lady's Peace cathedral in Copenhagen.

Sweden, Finland and Norway held a day of mourning for tsunami victims on Saturday.

Flights have been bringing dead victims and their friends and relatives home from the disaster area.

But the press took heart from the story of a Swedish mother, who had been pictured in the world's newspapers running into the approaching tsunami in Thailand trying to save her children.

Her fate was unknown until this weekend, when it was revealed that both she and her children had survived.

Thai authorities say at least 2,400 foreign tourists were killed on the country's beaches.

Only about 350 were officially confirmed dead by their home countries as of Sunday, though the number still unaccounted for was over 7,000.

Most of those are Europeans.

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