Rich and poor alike were swept up by Asia's killer tsunami, with a supermodel, multi-millionaire football players, royalty and movie stars among those running for their lives.
Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova clung to a palm tree for eight hours in the devastated Thai resort of Khao Lak after being hit by a wall of water in Sunday's deadly tidal waves, her publicist in New York said.
PHOTO: AP
Her British boyfriend, fashion photographer Simon Atlee, is missing.
PHOTO: AFP
"People were screaming and kids were screaming all over the place, screaming `help, help.' And after a few minutes you didn't hear the kids any more," Nemcova told the New York Daily News from her hospital bed in Thailand.
"There were so many people with horrible injuries, with blood everywhere. It was like a war movie," she said.
The 25-year-old, who has gra-ced the front cover of Sports Illustrated's special swimsuit issue and also modeled Victoria's Secret lingerie line, suffered a broken pelvis and internal injuries.
There was no lucky escape for Bhumi Jensen, the 21-year-old grandson of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who was killed at the same popular resort area when the waves struck.
"It's a national tragedy," said a grim-faced Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The monarchy is revered in Thailand.
Bhumi is the son of Princess Ubolratana and her estranged American husband Peter Jensen. He was holidaying with his mother at the time but she was safe.
British actor and film director Richard Attenborough was also in mourning after the death of his granddaughter in the catastrophe.
Lucy was among a family group staying on Phuket island, said Diana Hawkins, a colleague and friend of the Attenborough family. Attenborough's eldest daughter Jane is missing, as is her mother-in-law, Jane Holland.
"Lord Attenborough and his wife, Sheila, have lost three mem-bers of their immediate family in the tidal wave disaster that hit the beaches of Thailand on Boxing Day morning," a statement from Hawkins said.
The 81-year-old is one of the most successful actors and directors Britain has ever produced, finding fame appearing in films such as Brighton Rock and The Great Escape.
As a director, his biggest triumph was Gandhi, which won eight Oscars in 1983, including best film and best director.
Chinese action hero Jet Li survived the horror on the picture-postcard Maldives, sustaining minor injuries when the tidal wave triggered by an undersea earthquake off Indonesia swamped the hotel where he was staying.
Li, who starred in Hollywood flicks including Lethal Weapon 4 and Romeo Must Die grabbed his four-year-old daughter when their hotel room started to flood and escaped, the Singtao Daily reported, citing his management.
Stars of the sporting arena were also caught up in the tsunami nightmare that has left more than 55,000 people dead.
A number of Italian football players were also holidaying in the Maldives when the full force of the tidal wave hit, Gazzetta dello Sport reported.
Among them were AC Milan's Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta, Filippo Inzaghi and Cristian Brocchi, and Juventus defender Gianluca Zambrotta.
The newspaper's Web site said they were safe.
Sri Lankan cricket spin king Muttiah Muralitharan declared himself "lucky to be alive" after narrowly missing one of the tsunamis that killed over 17,000 people in his home country.
Muralitharan told the Sydney Morning Herald he drove out of the southern city of Galle just minutes before it was swamped by a massive surge of water.
Among others fleeing the tragedy in southern Sri Lanka was former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, who was helicoptered from his guesthouse at Talpe, a suburb of Galle.
Back in Thailand, skiing great Ingemar Stenmark ran for his life when he saw an immense wave heading towards him in Khok Kloi, offshore from Phuket.
"The water from the first wave disappeared, but then it came back with terrifying speed," Stenmark, who won two gold medals at the 1980 Olympics, told Swedish media.
Australian AFL star Troy Broadbridge was not so lucky, being swept away from his wife as the strolled along a Phuket beach, his club Melbourne Demons said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to