An elephant took me to safety

'I thought the world was ending during Boxing Day tsunami - I don't know how I survived'
John Metcalfe, a Liverpool man living in Thailand, survived the Boxing Day Tsunami 20 years ago, enduring harrowing injuries and a fight for life against overwhelming odds with the help of his dad
Boxing Day Tsunami: An elephant took me to safety
On 26 December 2004, Amber Owen, 28, from Milton Keynes, was on holiday in Phuket when a magnitude-9.1 earthquake struck under the sea in northern Indonesia. It claimed the lives of 230,000 people, but she taken to safety by elephant, Ningnong who she was riding at the time the first wave hit.
Woman who lost fiancé and two sons in Boxing Day tsunami speaks out on devastating moment disaster struck
A woman who survived a tsunami shared the devastation of the impact of the waves. It has been 20 years since the Boxing Day tsunami which killed of more than 227,000 people on 26 December 2004. There were little survivors out of those who were swept away by the waves, and for Sharon Howard, it took ‘everything’ from her.
'Boxing Day Tsunami 20 years ago today saw me lose my two sons and fiancé in an instant'
Sharon Howard has returned to Thailand to mark the 20th anniversary of losing her six-year-old son Taylor, his eight-year-old brother Mason and fiancé, David Page, 44
'I saw everything was destroyed': Memories still incredibly raw 20 years after Boxing Day tsunami
Khao Lak was the worst-hit area in Thailand. Many of the dead were tourists enjoying a pristine stretch of beach with azure waters. They had to rebuild vast swathes of it - hotels and houses now placed further back from the shoreline.
‘There was nothing but death and debris’ – The Boxing Day tsunami 20 years on
20 years later, one of the Matara train’s carriages sits outside the city’s Tsunami Museum as a haunting reminder of Boxing Day of 2004. The effects of the 9.3 Richter scale earthquake did not relent until eight hours later, when unaware swimmers off the coast of South Africa felt the force of the waves.
Indonesia and Thailand mark 20 years of devastating Boxing Day tsunami with sombre ceremonies
In Thailand, people gathered at a memorial ceremony in Ban Nam Khem, a small fishing village in Phang Nga province that bore ...
Former forensic investigator runs 1,400km to support Boxing Day tsunami victims
Boxing Day tsunami, forensic investigator Peter Baines wanted to create good from the enormity of loss. Twenty years on, he ...
Boxing Day tsunami 20 years on: The North East tourists caught up in ocean disaster
More than 200,000 lives were claimed when powerful earthquake triggered a huge tsunami tidal wave on Boxing Day 2004 ...
Frenchwoman’s 20 years of helping Thai school after daughter died in Boxing Day tsunami
Elisabeth Zana thought her life was over after her daughter died in the 2004 tsunami. Instead she began helping a Thai school ...
Families of Boxing Day tsunami victims weep as they mark 20th anniversary of one of the world’s worst natural disasters
MOURNERS wept today as they marked the 20th anniversary of the Boxing Day tsunami which killed 230,000. They gathered along shores to honour those who died when huge waves triggered by a ...
20 years since the Boxing Day tsunami: How Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park has recovered – and thrived
How Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park has recovered – and thrived - Two decades after the 2004 tsunami devastated coastal ...
Mourners in Thailand mark the 20th anniversary of Indian Ocean Tsunami
Mourners gathered at a memorial ceremony in Ban Nam Khem on Thursday, a small fishing village in Phang Nga province in ...
Asia to mourn tsunami dead with ceremonies 20 years on
Emotional ceremonies were expected across Asia on Thursday to remember the 220,000 people who died two decades ago when a ...