PEOPLE from across Kent have been caught up in the tragedy of the tsunami disaster in Southern Asia.

Below are some of the stories reported so far involving people with links to the county:

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Mourning Lucy

PUPILS at a Canterbury school are mourning the grand-daughter of Lord Attenborough, who was killed in the tsunami disaster.

Lucy Holland, 14, a pupil at the King's School, was on holiday in Phuket.

King's School head Canon Keith Wilkinson said: "Lucy was always a vivacious and talented girl of great spirit and style."

Lucy's mother, Lord Attenborough's eldest daughter Jane, and grandmother – also called Jane – are both missing presumed dead.

Relentless search for perished friend

FOR seven days, former Folkestone schoolboys Craig Cardwell and Gareth Marks, went from makeshift mortuary to makeshift mortuary in a desperate hunt for travelling companion Jez Stephens, who disappeared after the wave struck the Thai island of Koh Phi Phi.

The trail reached its end when the pair finally found the 29-year-old among the bodies lying in a temple in Krabi.

Jez was brought up in Lympne, and was a pupil at the primary school there, before winning a place at the Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone.

He was coming to the end of a three-week trip to Thailand.

Villagers remember victim

THE spire at Wingham church will be floodlit for an evening on January 30 in memory of a former villager who was killed in the Asian tsunami.

June Abeyratne, who used to live in Wingham with her parents, died after saving her daughter's life in Sri Lanka.

She had travelled to the country with her husband Viraj and 11-year-old daughter Alexandra to open an orphanage.

When the disaster struck she and Alexandra became trapped in their beachside bungalow. She was able to push her daughter out of the window but could not escape herself and drowned.

Family destroyed

A KENT family with Sri Lankan roots is mourning the death of 28 relatives in the tsunami disaster.

Donald and Mercy Thilagarajan, who own the Townlands store in Woodchurch near Ashford, spent New Year's Eve watching the horrific images of the home they knew so well.

Mrs Thilagarajan, 35, was born in the Sri Lankan town of Batticaloa where she lived until coming to England in 1993.

She lost her uncle and 27 other relatives on Boxing Day. Many more of their loved ones are still unaccounted for.

Mrs Thilagarajan said: "I feel so helpless over here. When I heard about it I thought I had to go over there but it is impossible."

Couple's beach hut washed away

A TEACHER on a diving holiday in Thailand with her husband when the Asian earthquake disaster struck is missing, presumed killed.

Hannah Tugwell, of Chainhurst, near Marden, was in Phuket with husband Matt when the tsunami hit.

Friends of the couple say the beach hut in which they were staying was washed away by the waves.

Mr Tugwell was able to scramble to safety but his wife is unaccounted for. Mr Tugwell has since returned home.

Breakfast saved my life

A SURFER from Borough Green survived the tsunami because he decided to take breakfast just before it hit.

Graham Taft, 41, was in the Sri Lankan resort of Hikkaduwa for his annual surfing holiday. He was out on the dawn waves on Boxing Day at the precise moment the earthquake struck hundreds of miles away, off the coast of Sumatra.

Father Ron first heard of the disaster when his son called that morning to say he was safe.

Mr Taft said: "He had been surfing in the morning, they get up at sunrise, and then he went to get breakfast. When he got there everybody was running. He looked and saw the sea rushing up the beach, and turned and ran."

Graham fled to higher ground and found shelter with a family in the jungle.

Missing family found safe

FRIENDS of a family who were feared to have been victims of the tsunami disaster celebrated news that they had been found alive and well.

Gareth Smith, his wife Floryda, and sons Zerubbabel, nine, and Joshua, six, from Beltinge, near Herne Bay, were on the island of Sipora, off the northwest coast of Sumatra, near the epicentre of the earthquake and resultant tsunami.

But it later emerged that they survived the wave, which was not as high as in other cases.

Searching through bodies to find mate

BACKPACKER Kevin Fisher spent Boxing Day frantically searching through bodies in Thailand trying to find his travel companion Mark Stevens.

Kevin, 33, a former Canterbury High School pupil, and Mark, of Sturry, had not seen each other since before the tsunami smashed into the resort of Phuket.

Kevin made a desperate call to parents Bob and Pat Fisher in Canterbury to say he was safe.

Later, Mr and Mrs Fisher received a call from another friend of Kevin’s to say Mark had been found safe and well, having been with another group of friends when the wave hit.

Dad went back to help

A FATHER who clung to a tree to escape a monster wave pulled bodies from the rubble after the disaster hit.

Roderick Walters, 37, from Gravesend, was on holiday on the Thai resort of Phuket with his partner Sharon Wood, 34, and their three children when the tsunami struck their ocean-facing hut on Patong Beach.

Mr Walters tried to run for cover when the 30-foot wave engulfed the beach resort, but was hit by a massive swell that dragged him hundreds of yards into a tree. He managed to climb to safety.

He ran to the hut, grabbed his family and piled them into an abandoned jeep, which still had its keys in the ignition, and drove them to safety before going back to help others.

Teacher turns up safe

A KENT teacher who was missing in the Asian earthquake disaster is now thought to be safe.

Jo Lee, a teacher at the Marlborough Centre at Hoo St Werburgh, near Rochester, was on holiday in Thailand when the tsunami struck. But now there are reports that she survived the disaster.

We said our goodbyes to each other

SISTERS Liz and Katy Wood still can't understand how they escaped unhurt from the tsunami which hit their beachside hotel in Sri Lanka.

The pair, from Canterbury, clung to each other crying as the third wave pounded their holiday paradise.

"We thought we were going to die," said Liz. "We were trapped by the water and said our goodbyes to each other."

Miraculously Liz, 31, and Katy, 27, survived the onslaught of the wave, whose height reached level with their third floor hotel room.

We hung onto a tree like monkeys

A NEWLYWED Bexley couple miraculously survived the Asian tidal wave disaster by desperately clinging onto a tree "like monkeys".

Honeymooners Suzanna and Nathan Lee-Walsh were swept out of the beachside villa they were staying in on the Maldives by huge waves.

The couple, both 25, eventually reached safety as the water receded.

Suzanna said: "We found a tree and hung onto it like monkeys. We were very, very fortunate."

Disbelief and awe

JULIE and Owen Bell from Folkestone were coming to the end of their honeymoon in Thailand when the wave crashed into their hotel.

The couple had been due to head out on a diving expedition on Boxing Day but 35-year-old Mr Bell's upset stomach kept them in their seashore hotel on the Ao Nang beach off Krabi.

Mrs Bell, 33, was in the shower when the wave struck.

She said: "We felt the hotel drop. We went down to the beach to see the locals looking out to sea. We stood looking in disbelief and awe. There were broken boats in the road, mud and sand in the shops, people screaming. Just devastation."

Locals put us before themselves

A BROMLEY man told how the local people in Sri Lanka put his family before themselves when the tsunami struck.

Terry Bates, now safely back home with his with his wife and daughter, said: "A local man in my hotel helped me pack my bags and then said two of his aunts were missing. I can’t understand why he helped me when he had that to deal with."

Mr Bates, his wife Laura and daughter Amy, 14, fled their hotel when water filled Amy’s room. She had been sleeping there just seconds earlier.

Mr Bates said: "We just ran and had no idea where we were going. A jeep driven by a local man appeared and rescued us."