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.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: ’After parkour ... you dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do,’ a 67-year-old parkour enthusiast said In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause. “Good job,” the 69-year-old’s coach cheers. This is “geriatric parkour,” where about 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie. Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages. “When you’re weak, you will be dependent on someone,” she said after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh,
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
RSS