BRITAIN: Only one Chinese cockle-picker was successfully rescued from the icy waters of Morecambe Bay when the others met their deaths in the rapidly rising tides.
Li Hua, who had been a cockler for just two weeks, was pulled from the sea by a lifeboat crew after he desperately tried to save his best friend Wen Ge.
Dramatic footage, captured by a rescue helicopter, shows him standing on a sandbank, waving his arms as it is engulfed by the tide. His friend, who he called Brother Wen, drowned.
Appearing as a prosecution witness in October, Li Hua gave a tearful account of the night his best friend and 22 others died.
He explained that on the night of February 5th, 2004, he had stopped work earlier than most and travelled towards the shore on the back of a red pick-up truck.
But as the tide rose, the cocklers were forced to abandon the vehicle, strip to their shorts and wade towards the shore, with the water up to their chests. Li Hua said: "When I got off the vehicle, I saw other people still raking cockles behind me.
"I thought Brother Wen was still left behind. Other people got off the vehicle, took off their waterproof clothes and walked forward, but I wanted to go back and tell Brother Wen.
"When I looked back, I saw someone before me who only had his head above the water."
Breaking down in tears, his voice shaking, he added: "I never expected so many people to die, including my Brother Wen."
Li Hua rushed to try to save his friend but the water, which was now up to his nose and mouth, was too high and the waves were throwing him back and forth.
When he lost sight of Wen Ge, he tried to turn back towards the shore. After struggling through the tide and channels in the bay, Li Hua reached a raised area of sand called Priest Skear.
He said: "The water kept rising and the size of the slope began to shrink. My parents, they are Christians and they follow Christianity, so I asked for God to protect me. I cried for help a few times, I thought at the time I was going to die.
"Suddenly, at that time, there was a helicopter flying above my head and then later it was shining in my eyes." Once Li Hua had been spotted by the helicopter, a lifeboat rescued him and took him back to shore.