I battled waves in vain bid to save my baby

A father has told how he battled in vain against the waves to save his 59-day-old baby, grandson of Bill star Eric Richard.

Charlie Smith - the youngest British victim of the disaster - died as his father desperately held him with one arm while trying to cling to a tree with the other, as water tumbled them "like a washing machine" and buildings collapsed all around.

Parents Richard, 37, and Deirdre, 35, eventually found safety and attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before rushing the baby to doctors. But, in a harrowing experience in the corpse-filled corridors of a Sri Lankan hospital, a doctor simply told them: "Take him to the mortuary."

Mr Smith, son of actor Eric Richard, told of their struggle against the waves: "I held Charlie up with one hand to try to keep him out of the water. We were flying through trees and bushes. Concrete blocks disintegrated and debris from the beach - sunbeds, tables and chairs - slammed into us."

Only a few minutes before they had been at a restaurant on idyllic Unawatuna beach, near Galle, said Mr Smith, speaking from a relative's home in London.

"Then a wave washed over a drop of about four or five feet where the sand sloped down into the sea. Then it washed across it into the restaurant area.

"A higher wave came in, about knee high. Then sunbeds started floating. But even then we never panicked. Each time we thought it was a freak high tide.

"As the wave came in even higher we stepped onto the bulb of a coconut tree. Then another rushed in bringing the water up to chest height. Deirdre had her back to a palm tree with Charlie in her arms.

"That was when we started to lose our footing. Deirdre said 'hold him because I can't". So I held Charlie against my right arm.

"We could hear people screaming and running through the plantation. But I was still thinking that we were OK. Then, as I was looking back towards the back of the restaurant, a 20ft wave came over.

"The whole restaurant disintegrated. As we turned to go, the wave hit us. We were gone. Under no control anymore.

"I'd got Charlie and I wasn't going to lose him. We were being tumbled through a coconut plantation. Charlie and I ended up pinned against a tree. I thought that was good.

"But then all the debris from the beach slammed into my chest. I couldn't breathe. The next instant we were carried away again.

"At the end I knew Charlie was dead... His body was limp. I laid him on a surfboard. He looked like he was asleep."

The couple's two other children, Sinead, 16, and Niall, 14 survived with minor injuries. The family are now launching Charlie's Appeal for the Children of Unawatuna.