Riza, a 26-year-old clothes seller from Penayang village in the capital of Banda Aceh, said she initially watched helplessly as the tsunami swept in to destroy her home on Sunday morning.

"I witnessed with my own eyes how the sea water, along with mud, rocks and logs, came rolling in," Riza told reporters from a refugee camp at Banda Aceh airport, according to the state Antara  news agency.

"Thousands of people were screaming hysterically and were panicking as they saw the water rise higher than their houses."

Riza said that, as she was carried out of her house, she was dragged towards her badly injured neighbour, who was struggling to hold on to her nine-year-old twins.

"Please save my twins, just let me go, as long as they're safe," a tearful Riza recalled the mother saying.

Riza said she grabbed the twins and placed them on her back. As she struggled through the torrent, she saw a snake as big as a telephone pole gliding left with current of the water and towards what turned out to be a makeshift bank.

"Strangely I felt no fear," Riza said, adding she followed the snake to safety.

"Thank God, with the power I had left, I managed to go to higher ground and the water was only a meter high."

Riza said the twins suffered severe bruising and other injuries from being battered, but they too were safe. There was no word on the fate of their mother.

The tsunami, which was triggered by an earthquake in the waters off Aceh, killed more than 45,000 people in the province and at least 36,000 others in coastal areas around Asia.

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