Survivor tells of cave terror
Helena Carroll was the sole survivor of the cave tragedy in southern Thailand
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Monday, 15, Oct 2007 08:14
A British woman who was the only survivor of a caving tragedy in Thailand has spoken of the moment she last saw her fiance.
Helena Carroll, 21, managed to cling on to rocks as water flooded the cave in the southern Thai province of Surat Thani, but 24-year-old John Cullen was swept to his death with seven others.
A ten-year-old German boy and a Swiss couple and their two daughters also drowned, along with two local Thai guides.
Talking after she was rescued Ms Carroll, from Solihull in the West Midlands, spoke of the moment she parted from her boyfriend.
"When we got in, it was amazing," she said in comments broadcast on Thai TV.
"We saw lots of bats and spiders in our torchlight but then, when I guess we had got halfway through the cave, I heard this sudden roar. I looked behind and saw this rush of water coming towards us. John and I started climbing.
"The first thing we saw was the tour guide and a ten-year-old German boy being dragged away, then the Swiss couple and their two lovely girls."
Ms Carroll, who had been on a yearlong trip with Mr Cullen, revealed how her boyfriend "grabbed me and pulled me up" when she slipped as they climbed, and talked of his decision to go and get help.
"John said, 'If we stay here we are going to die', but I said we should stay," she added.
"But he decided that he would get into the current and flow with it. He thought the current would take him out, then he could bring help to rescue me.
"He slipped into the water and that's the last I saw of him. He let go and he was just gone. I was alone in the dark. All I could see was insects that light up like fireflies, and hear the rumbling of the water. I sat there shivering all night. I had no idea what the time was.
"Then all of a sudden I saw a bright light. It was the light of a torch and so I started shouting, 'Help, help, I'm over here'. When I got out I was told that many people had died."
The tourists had been taken into the cave for an expedition despite signs in English and Thai warning against the activity during the rainy season, according to local Thai officials.
Thai authorities have named the other victims as Benno and Stalder Fischer, 49 and 48, their daughters Ambarea, 17, and Sarah, 15, and German child Eddie Gaempe, whose mother did not go into the cave.