Tsunami most-followed news event of year

A villager amongst the destruction after the Tsunami devastation in Samoa. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The Pacific tsunami which ravaged villages and killed dozens of people was this year's most closely followed news story.

A survey carried out by UMR Research found that up to 81 per cent of New Zealanders surveyed followed news coverage of the tsunami.

On September 30, an 8.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of American Samoa, at around 7am, and triggered a massive tsunami in the pacific.

Whole villages on the south coast of the island of Upolu, in Samoa, were wiped out.

Almost 200 people in Samoa were killed - including tourists from Australia and New Zealand - and others in American Samoa and the nearby Tongan island of Niuatoputapu.

Most of those killed were children on their way to school.

The second most followed news story this year - with 79 per cent of people following it - was the Victorian bushfires that killed more than 200 people in Australia in February.

The search for Waitakere toddler Aisling Symes on October 5 - less than a week after the devastating tsunami news - proved to be third most popular news story of 2009.

Hundreds of people across the country were captured by the story when 2-year-old Aisling went missing from her late grandparents' home in Henderson, in West Auckland, while her mother was tending to a washing machine. A massive search was soon under way, with people turning up from all parts of Auckland to help with the search.

Baby Aisling's body was found in a stormwater drain about 20m from the house, a week later.

Seventy-five per cent of people followed the Aisling Symes story.

Other popular stories included the swine flu outbreak in April, with 69 per cent of people following, and the Napier siege in May, which was followed by 67 per cent of those surveyed.

Napier gunman Jan Molenaar barricaded himself in his home for several days as police made every effort to seize him. In the process, Molenaar shot and killed Senior Constable Len Snee and critically injured two other police officers, when they approached his house. Molenaar's body was later found in a bedroom.

The only other stories that have been followed more closely, since the surveys began in 2003, were the London bombings in 2005, the Boxing Day tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004 and the search for Featherston girl Coral Burrows in 2003.

Around 750 people from across the country were surveyed for the poll.

TOP FIVE
Leading news stories of 2009:

1.Pacific tsunami
2.Victorian bushfires
3.Search for Aisling Symes
4.Swine flu outbreak
5.Napier siege