On 26 December 2004, Amber Owen, 28, from Milton Keynes, was on holiday in Phuket when a magnitude-9.1 earthquake struck under the sea in northern Indonesia. It claimed the lives of 230,000 people, but she taken to safety by elephant, Ningnong who she was riding at the time the first wave hit.

John Metcalfe, a Liverpool man living in Thailand, survived the Boxing Day Tsunami 20 years ago, enduring harrowing injuries and a fight for life against overwhelming odds with the help of his dad

In Thailand, people gathered at a memorial ceremony in Ban Nam Khem, a small fishing village in Phang Nga province that bore the brunt of the devastating wave in the country. The tsunami claimed the lives of over 8,000 people in Thailand. Many remain missing and nearly 400 bodies are unclaimed to this day.