Tourists fled wave on surfboards

A group of British tourists escaped death by riding the tsunami on surfboards, they said today as they flew home from coastal areas of Sri Lanka.

But as one group of surfers rode the surge of water to safety, Sri Lankan villagers were swept away after being tempted on to a beach by the sight of a bumper crop of fish.

Around 40 people from the village outside Moratuwa were killed, said R J Desilva, 22, a Sri Lankan student studying at Kingston University, south west London.

He recounted how one wave swept back from the beach leaving fish strewn across the bare sand.

But as villagers rushed to seize the opportunity, they were swept away in a second wave.

He said: “Some of them thought it was the best opportunity to catch fish. They are from rural areas. They didn’t have any knowledge.”

Mr Desilva, who was staying around 15 minutes from the coast when the wave hit, said that he and fellow Sri Lankans had clubbed together to buy dry rations from shops and delivered them to a school where survivors were being accommodated.

Meanwhile, surfer Joe Pritchard, 17, from Charmouth, Dorset, said at the resort of Midigama the tsunami took the form of a “surge” of water rather than a sharp wave which allowed him to ride to safety on his surfboard while a packed bus was swept away.

He said: “I was walking along the beach, it was low tide and the water started lapping up against the walls of the guest house. I thought ’What’s going on?’.

“I put my leash back on and jumped back in the water, there was a surge of water which came through and pushed the walls down.

“There were people screaming everywhere, buses packed with people. They were being turned over and washed straight back into the jungle.”

But Joe, a competition surfer with corporate sponsorship, was carried out by the receding tide half a mile across sand and coral from where he ran to safety.

He was accompanied by Gary Wells, 21, from Paignton, Devon, at the time, while Gary’s brother Danny, 20, was swept inland but survived unhurt.

Fellow surfer Steven Grant, 26, from Bristol was inside the guest house where the team were staying when the water struck.

He said: “A little bit of water lapped up under my door. I thought ’What is this?’. Then the front wall caved in. The next we knew, we were washed into the jungle 50 to 100 metres.

“There was a strange kind of eerie silence and then people started shouting to get back. When the wall caved down, you could just see that the sea was in front of you. A couple in the next room were up a tree.”