SURVIVORS from the region last night described the aftermath of the tsunami in South-East Asia as a holocaust,with bodies floating in and out of the sea.

In Thailand, volunteers dragged scores of corpses from beaches, inland pools and hotels. But in Sri Lanka, more than a dozen British teachers initially feared dead have been found safe and well.

A British scuba diving instructor, of Thirsk, North Yorkshire, has told how he helped a group of 14 divers hang on to underwater rocks as Sunday's tsunami passed over their heads.

Adrian Kaye, 29, had been filming the group, which included three deaf people and one man paralysed from the waist down, at a dive called Richelieu Rock off the Surin Islands, in the Indian Ocean.

He said: "It was the scariest thing that I have ever experienced. My life flashed before my eyes.

"We had been under the water for a while and the conditions were perfect.

"Then suddenly the sea turned into a washing machine. We were being thrown around and it was pitch black.

"I didn't know what was happening. I just knew that we had to grab on to some rocks or the group were going to be swept away.

"People's hands were getting cut and slipping off the rock. So the only thing I could think of was to hold on to each other, which we did and we survived."

His father, Nick Kaye, 55, from Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe, near Thirsk, said he was proud of his son.

He said: "We are so relieved Adrian is okay. On the day that it happened, we knew exactly where Adrian would have been when the earthquake happened - we were worried sick."

Haulage boss David Scott was hailed a hero after it was revealed he helped save the lives of his daughter Charlotte and her friend, Jenna Kirton, both 15, of Victor Way, Thornaby, Teesside.

They were on a diving expedition in Phuket when waves smashed into their boat and threw them back on to the beach.

Charlotte's mother Joan has received three brief phone calls from her daughter since the disaster.

One on Boxing Day revealed the girls had been staying in a temple for shelter, surrounded by dead bodies. They later made their way to their hotel where they found the bodies of 20 staff before making their way into the hills.

The group had managed to take food from the hotel fridge and were given fresh water by other survivors.

Yvonne and Paul Ditchfield were enjoying a late honeymoon on Kuredu island, in the Maldives.

Mrs Ditchfield's sister Rita Taylor and husband Chris, from Sedgefield, County Durham, began calling the Home Office helpline to see if the newlyweds had survived, but it was eight hours before they finally managed to get through.

Mrs Taylor said: "They just wanted information from us such as their names, what they looked like, did they have any distinguishable marks. That was quite scary.

"We tried them both on their mobiles and their holiday resort and company. Eventually, Yvonne rang at around 4.30am to tell us they were safe."

Backpackers Jack Harrison, David McNiven and Matthew Walsh, of Newcastle, were only weeks into a round-the-world tour when the tsunami rocked Phi Phi where they were staying.

The schoolpals, all 21, had been due to take a boat trip but missed it after two of them slept in.

Mr Harrison, a former Northumbria University student, said: "We were very, very lucky. There was an awful lot of debris, flooding, damage to property and people injured.

Samantha Murray, 19, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, arrived home from Thailand yesterday .

She was staying in Cape Panwa on the island of Phuket.

Miss Murray said: "It was quite scary, but no one really knew what was happening or what to do, or where to go.

"I'm now just really glad to be home."