RTÉ producer survives tsunami

A SENIOR television producer with RTÉ said he is lucky to be alive after narrowly avoiding being drowned when the tsunami hit a holiday resort in Thailand where at least 800 people are believed to have been killed.

Bill Malone, producer of The Late Late Show, described yesterday how he had a miraculous escape after being caught up in the killer tidal wave that devastated vast areas of coastline around the Indian Ocean last Sunday.

The 34-year-old native of Waterford city had gone to the popular Thai seaside resort of Khao Lak, around 100km north of the main tourist island of Phuket, for a scuba-diving holiday over Christmas with his German-born girlfriend, Elke.