Two-year-old British boy killed in South Pacific tsunami

Tourists are among those killed as tsunami hits South Pacific islands
12 April 2012

A British boy of two is believed to have been swept to his death from his parents' arms in a South Pacific tsunami.

The child was on a Samoan beach with his mother and father when they were engulfed by a huge wave. The couple swam to safety but there was no sign of the boy. He is missing presumed dead, one of about 120 fatalities, among them an Australian girl of six.

A New Zealand diplomat said of the parents: "They are completely distressed and have not even informed their families back in Britain yet. They have a few injuries but they are not serious. They are in a state of shock." At least 77 people were reported dead in Samoa, more than 30 in the US territory of American Samoa and at least 10 in neighbouring Tonga. The two Samoas and Tonga have a combined population of 400,000.

Four tsunamis were triggered when an 8.3-magnitude earthquake struck deep under the sea yesterday. An unconnected earthquake was said to have left thousands buried under rubble on Sumatra. The force of the waves that hit Samoa, which reached up to a mile in-shore, flattened entire villages, sent boats crashing ashore and pulled people and cars out to sea.

Thousands have been left homeless and the death toll is expected to rise with bodies said to have been buried under tons of sand. Dozens have been reported missing and hundreds injured.

The British couple and their son are thought to have been on holiday on a resort near the village of Lalomanu on Samoa's main island of Upolu. Warnings had been issued and it is thought they were trying to escape to higher ground when the waves struck.

The mother and father are now staying at the New Zealand High Commission in Samoa and have been in contact with the British High Commission in New Zealand. Wendy Booth, owner of the Samoan resort Sea Breeze in Upolu, said she and her husband Chris were almost washed away. "The second wave hit and came up through the floor, pushed out the back door and threw us outside," she told Fairfax Radio Network in Australia.

She said they survived by hanging on to each other and a handrail as parts of their resort disintegrated around them. "Our restaurant just floated out to sea complete, until it smashed up in the water," said Mr Booth.

Stephen Rogers, the British honorary consul, said Samoa had been shaken by the initial earthquake, with many buildings suffering structural damage, but the devastation caused by the tsunami was largely confined to the south-east.

He said he picked up five Britons, aged in their twenties and early thirties, from the area earlier today. They included three tourists, one who had been living in New Zealand with a British passport, one on a round-the-world trip, and another who had recently moved to the island, he said.

He said there were no other reports of any other British casualties in the disaster although there are believed to have been about 20 Britons on the island at the time. He said: "We have a number of British people who have lost all their possessions."

The Australian government said two Australians, a six-year old girl and a woman aged 50, were killed and six others were missing. "It does look like there will be substantial loss of life in Samoa," said Australia's aid minister Bob McMullan.

The Queen said she was "saddened" by the tragedy and sent messages of condolence to the royal family in Tonga and to the Samoan head of state.

Red Cross teams mobilised more than 100 emergency workers who began collecting coconuts to help feed casualties. President Obama declared a major disaster in American Samoa, releasing disaster aid funds, with a US C-130 military transport aircraft due to leave Honolulu.

Ausegalia Mulipola, assistant chief executive of Western Samoa's disaster management office, said: "They are still continuing the searches for any missing bodies in the area. Some areas have been flattened and the tsunami brought a lot of sand onshore, so there have been reports the sand has covered some of the bodies." New Zealander Graeme Ansell said the Samoan village of Sau Sau Beach Fale had been flattened. "It was very quick. The whole village has been wiped out," he told a radio station. "There's not a building standing. There will be people in a great lot of need round here."

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