Wellington: A teenage survivor of a river tragedy that claimed seven lives said in a printed account that he heard his schoolmates cheer as he jumped into a raging river to swim to safety. Most of those cheering were not so lucky.

Elim Christian College student Kish Proctor was one of five survivors of a high school expedition in a wilderness river canyon that was supposed to build team spirit and environmental awareness.

Six 16-year-old students from the school and their 29-year-old teacher were killed on Tuesday when they were overwhelmed by floodwaters streaming down the Mangatepopo River after a violent rainstorm in central North Island.

Their principal said yesterday that the sudden, massive surge of floodwaters meant the group had little chance of escape. New Zealanders were deeply shocked by the tragedy.

Proctor, 15, told the New Zealand Herald newspaper that the group of 10 students, a teacher and an outdoors instructor were trapped in a rocky crevasse by the rising waters. They decided to jump in, float across the river and round a blind bend, to be caught by the waiting instructor who was first to jump into the raging river with a student strapped to her back. The instructor and that student survived.

After those two had jumped, Proctor said he volunteered to be the first student to jump alone and everyone cheered him. The torrential current swept him out of reach of the instructor. "I was just gasping for air and I was under the current most of the time. Every time I got up, I just breathed in air and I just called on God s name," the paper quoted him as saying.

As he tumbled in the raging water, rocks split his safety helmet and the flood pulled off his boots. After hitting some logs Proctor said he called on God for the strength to move, fearing he would never get out.

Source : PTI