A man who survived the devastating Boxing Day tsunami has opened up about how he managed to escape on the 20th year anniversary of the disaster.
The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami devastated countries in the Indian Ocean, with over 227,000 people losing their lives on 26 December 2004.
With 100ft waves crashing on coastal areas, it quickly swept away people who were on beaches, and even in hotels as the water battered the small islands.
The 20th anniversary of the disaster has since come around and some of those who miraculously escape the waves have come out to tell their stories.
Just six-years-old at the time, Louise described how she and her family managed to escape the giant waves, while Luke Simon shared the pain of losing his brother, Piers.
Advert
The now 50-year-old was on Thailand's Koh Phi Phi islands with Piers, and his girlfriend Sophie Moghadam. He also had two friends, Ben Seyfried and Nick Thorne, with him on the morning of 26 December.
Prior to the disaster, he had been working in Thailand as a PE teacher and his brother came over to visit for Christmas.
In a recent interview with The Mirror after appearing in the ITV documentary Tsunami: The Wave That Shook The World, Luke spoke about his experience.
"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 said.
Advert
As people began to run around frantically, Luke initially believed that a gunman or a rabid dog was on the loose until he heard the words: "Water, coming."
As Luke, Piers, Sophie, Ben and Nick ran to find higher ground, three people in the group were swept away.
He had led his group to a row of streets that had buildings they could climb on while shouting at his group to ‘get high and off the ground’.
He was able to hoist himself up onto an iron shed and held a hand out for Sophie, with Piers below to push her up.
But then, Ben and Nick were taken into an alleyway by the waves and Piers vanished.
Advert
.png)
After getting to safety on a high rooftop, Luke was soon reunited with his group and they began to look for 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.
He thought of numerous scenarios of what could have happened, but he would discover that he had died five days later after looking through the makeshift morgues which were erected to house the dead.
As the Thai police refused to let him identify his brother’s body because of the state it was in after being in water for so long, he enlisted the help of Ben to do it instead.
Advert
Since the disaster, he’s never once forgotten about the tragedy of the event and believes that it could happen to anyone at any time, noting that he holds no guilt for surviving, adding: "It could have happened anywhere in the world."
Just after the tragedy, he set up School in a Bag, a charity which supplies school essentials to those in need worldwide.
Topics: World News, ITV, TV
Britt Jones