Tragic backstory behind one of 'most chilling images of all time' that saw more than 220,000 lives lost

A wall of water crashes through the trees towards a group of people on the beach in Ao Nang, Thailand, most turn and run, while one man seems to stand there watching the surging mass of seawater coming towards him.

The image is just one snapshot of the terrible disaster caused by the Indian Ocean Tsunami, which struck on Boxing Day 2004 and ended up becoming the deadliest natural disaster we've had thus far this century.

The disaster was caused by the third most powerful earthquake in history as it measured at 9.1 on the Richter scale and could be felt in Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand and the Maldives.

Almost 20 miles below the ocean floor, the India tectonic plate subducted beneath the Burma plate and caused a rupture around 800 miles long.

The resulting earthquake was colossal, releasing about 23,000 times as much energy as the nuclear bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima.

Some people were able to get pictures of the oncoming tsunami (AFP via Getty Images)

Following the earthquake was a tsunami which battered coastlines and caused thousands of casualties as it went on to be the deadliest tsunami ever recorded in history.

A series of crashing waves destroyed all in its path and then swept the debris further inland to cause even more destruction as it ruined people's homes, their infrastructure and tore through agriculture with the saltwater damaging the soil afterwards.

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By the end of it, the death toll sat at a devastating 227,898, and the pictures taken from mere moments before the tsunami struck show those final seconds before so much was swept away and lost.

This image is only one of many which captured the moments before devastation, and they are all chilling in their nature of depicting a world about to be struck by catastrophe.

Pictures of people trying to rush off a beach as the devastating waves surge towards them are harrowing, as we know what followed them.

The tsunami became the deadliest natural disaster of the 21st Century, taking over 220,000 lives (SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images)

One tourist even managed to unwittingly film the start of the tsunami as he stood on Thailand's Koh Ngai beach.

He and his friends said they were enjoying their time on a 'paradise island' and had tried to book a caving expedition when they were told they couldn't go because of strange swirling waves that had formed.

The tourist was filming on the beach and captured the first waves of the tsunami washing up to shore.

Fortunately for the tourist, a British man named Julian, he survived the tsunami and confirmed that everyone in his footage survived as well.

Years later, he explained that he'd been 'on the landward side of the island' and so was not hit directly, with the destructive waves instead washing around them.