Man who survived tragic Boxing Day tsunami shares haunting two words he heard moments before
A man who survived the devastating Boxing Day tsunami has revealed the haunting words he heard moments before disaster struck.
The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami remains one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern history, with over 227,000 people losing their lives on 26 December 2004.
Two decades on from the disaster and several survivors are marking the anniversary by sharing their harrowing recollections from the day.
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One of those survivors was Luke Simon, now 50, who was at a cafe on Thailand's Koh Phi Phi islands with his brother Piers, girlfriend Sophie Moghadam as well as friends Ben Seyfried and Nick Thorne on the morning of 26 December.
Luke had been working in Thailand as a PE teacher and had been visited by his brother for Christmas.
However they would instead find themselves caught up in an unthinkable tragedy.
Recalling the events in an interview with The Mirror alongside his appearance in ITV documentary Tsunami: The Wave That Shook The World, Luke revealed the chilling lengths he went to in order to survive the 100ft wave.
"The horizon was sort of bubbling up and down because the wave had already hit the shore and then had destroyed anything in its path, and then was coming straight at us," he explained.
Unsure of the impending danger and observing people frantically running inland, Luke initially believed there could've been a gunman or a rabid dog on the loose. However he would soon realise the gravity of the situation they were in after hearing two chilling words. "Water, coming."
What came next was a desperate dash for survival as Luke, Piers, Sophie, Ben and Nick attempted to get themselves to higher ground.
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Luke was able to hoist himself onto a nearby roof and set about helping Sophie up. Ben and Nick had been swept into a nearby alleyway by the water, while Piers suddenly vanished from his sight.
After watching the wave destroy everything in its path, the group began to search for missing Piers.
"We were all together again but Piers isn't, there is something not right here. I tried to stop myself putting together these sentences, but I couldn't," Luke said, adding that he had mentally begun to explore multiple scenarios of what could've happened to his brother.
Five days and later and Luke would finally discover that his brother had been killed in the destruction after travelling through makeshift morgues where deceased bodies were being held.
In the two decades since the disaster Luke has focused on charity work, setting up School in a Bag - a charity which supplies school essentials to those in need worldwide - and commemorating his brother's passing every Boxing Day.
Topics: World News, ITV, TV
Brenna Cooper