Father who feared his son had died; TSUNAMI CRISIS: Photographer was in Goa when disaster hit.

Byline: By SAM WEBB [e-mail]

A COVENTRY father has spoken of his fear for his son who was in India at the time of the tsunami which has so far killed more than 122,000 people.

Roy Tilley, aged 62, of Lindley Road, Stoke, feared for the life of his 36-year-old son Jason, a former Evening Telegraph photographer, who was in Goa when the earthquake struck.

Although no one there was killed, the beaches were swamped, sending holidaymakers fleeing for their lives.

Mr Tilley said: "We were worried but then we heard he was all right. He had to run from the floods when the aftershocks hit."

Jason, who is now a freelance photographer, was sitting in a beachside bar when the disaster struck and had to flee when the bar was deluged.

In October, Roy Tilley visited the Sri Lankan resort of Beruwela, which has been ravaged by the quake.

He said: "There were beach sellers who sold saris and things on the beach and some of them were disabled. They wouldn't have had a chance because they would have been right on the beach."

Meanwhile two Coventry pals who returned from holiday in Thailand just days before the tsunami struck said their thoughts were with the thousands affected by the tragedy.

Steve Preece, aged 38, and Alan Dunn, aged 25, who both live in Jeliff Street, Tile Hill, returned on December 22 after a holiday in Phuket.

The pair said they still could not believe how fortunate they had been inleaving the resort when they did.

Mr Preece, a father-of-one, said he had booked the holiday to help him recover from the loss of his mother, Phyllis, who died, aged 79, on November 14.

He said: "You can't help but think of what might have happened had we still been there and the fact that we could also have been killed."

Mr Dunn, a welder, who attended Bishop Ullathorne RC School, in Leasowes Avenue, Eastern Green, said he had watched the tragedy unfold on television.

He said: "I was up at 4am, still jet-lagged, when I saw it on the news and immediately phoned Steve and told him to watch it - it was unbelievable.

CAPTION(S):

FAMILY DRAMA: Roy Tilley (above) who feared that his son Jason (inset) had been caught in the devastation and (left) a tourist's shot of the tsunami hitting the Sri Lanka resort of Beruwela, which Roy had visited in October