A British man was one of the eight tourists killed as a result of a cave flood in the south of Thailand, yesterday morning; as his partner survived by clinging onto the cave ceiling. Helena Carroll, 21 from Birmingham last saw her fiance, John Cullen alive as he was swept away by the waves, whilst endeavouring to look for help, in the Khao Sok region.
Helena was only found after clinging for her life to the cave wall 16 hours later, by a long search party. She reported, 'One minute I was in the most beautiful place in the world. The next thing, there is death all around me.' After this however, she continued by praising her rescuers as 'good men', and tears could be seen in her eyes as she left the park by boat with them.
The flash floods were caused by heavy rainfall which in turn caused the water to drown out the cave. It seems that this tragedy had been nobody's fault, but an accident of nature, as Police Lt Col Pichan Kanayasiri said, 'The tourists were inside the cave, and didn't know what was happening outside. They were trapped inside the cave.'
Although there had been a warning sign at the cave entrance, extra precautions will now be taken in order to prevent any other tragedies such as this from ever occurring again.