Greenland mourns 4 washed out to sea in their homes in tsunami

Greenland flags were flying at half-mast Wednesdayacross Denmark and in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, to mourn fourpeople who are presumed dead after a tsunami flooded a village onthe Arctic island's west coast.

Police spokesman Bjoern Tegner Bay said the missing are a familyof three, including a child, and an elderly man from the settlementof Nuugaatsiaq, which has some 80 inhabitants. Theirhomes were washed into the sea while they were still inside them.

A landslide into the sea from a mountain across the fjord fromthe settlement on Saturday sent water surging onto the land, destroying 11 houses.

"This is the worst thing that could have happened the floodcost loss of human lives," Greenland Premier Kim Kielsen said in astatement.

• VIDEO |Western Greenland could see more flooding like Saturday's tsunami
• Tsunami hits Greenland; at least 4 feared dead

Greenland's national day

The Arctic island of Greenland is an autonomous part of Denmark.

As June 21 is Greenland's national day, the red-and-white flagwith two horizontal bands and a disk, known by its Inuit nameErfalasorput, was flying atop official buildings. But because of thetragedy, it was lowered to half-mast.

A few thousand people had gathered in Nuuk for the national daytraditional parade through the capital with Greenland flags,speeches and songs. The event started with a minute of silence.

"Life gives and life takes. Let life move on as we followalong," Nivi Olsen, deputy mayor of Nuuk, a city of 17,300 people,
said, according to Greenland's main newspaper Sermitsiaq.

The search for the missing was temporarily stopped Tuesday due tofog, ice and currents. Police said it would resume when the weatherpermits.