Family reunited after tidal wave dash

A MOTHER photographed rushing towards a killer wave in a desperate bid to save her children has been found alive.

Karin Svard feared her husband and three sons were dead after the tsunami swept them off a beach in Krabi, Thailand. But the Swedish policewoman and her family survived after her dash to rescue them from the raging water.

Describing the moments before her race towards the wall of white water, she said: “I had to try and save my children, nothing was going to stop me.

“Terror was coming up inside me. I could feel it. But I was so focused I just started running to my family.”

Karin told the News of the World that her husband Lars also ran towards Anton, 14, Filip, 11 and Viktor, 10.

“I was running towards them. I could see this white wall coming to me and it was coming faster,” she said.

“I did not care. I was looking at my children. I wanted to hold them and care for them.”

The policewoman was engulfed by water and eventually washed up on higher ground. She then faced an agonising search for her family. “By this time I thought my family were dead. My life was over as far as I could see it. My children were taken away from me,” she said.

Karin and her frightened family were reunited when she found them clinging together.

She said: “I rushed to them and yelled, ‘Thank God you are alive’. We hugged each other. All around us people were shouting for their families and I could feel their fear.”