The Independent takes a step back from the tsunami disaster in a story called "The Lost Generation" to examine, however briefly, the cultural and social impact of losing so many children so quickly:

The cruelty was in the timing. Kapaliswaram, a policeman, described the scene: "There were kids playing cricket right out at the edge of the sea. Nobody round here knows who they were. No trace of their bodies has been found." Fishermen told how they had been swept away but had been able to swim back. The children could not. Nor could they run fast enough to escape.

The walls of water sent crashing onto the coasts of south Asia by the biggest earthquake in 40 years took a disproportionate number of young lives. It may have been as many as half of the victims - the toll stood at 60,000 last night. As the calmer waters return a steady flow of bodies, communities are coming to terms with a lost generation.

Mike Kiernan, a spokesman for Save the Children in Washington, said: "The death toll among children in these disasters is always high, especially in the poorest parts of the world - that is one of the tragedies. In villages such as Cuddalore in India we know that more than half of the 400 victims were children. There will also likely be many thousands of children orphaned." Waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera, as well as malaria, would take their toll on the youngest and weakest survivors, he warned.

Not to trivialize the reality or the impact, but in a strange, haunting way it almost feels as if the Pied Piper came and led them all away.