In their beach bungalow in the Thai resort of Khao Lak, Garry Beran and Carolyn Spraggon were jolted awake by the earthquake — but didn't think much of it. The British couple had breakfast, then joined the other tourists on the beach and noticed the tide receding. "One minute it was at our feet and then it was half a kilometer away," says Beran, 30. "People started walking out to get to it," but the couple, research scientists from Manchester, didn't follow because Spraggon was putting on suntan lotion. That probably saved their lives.

Within minutes, people ran toward them screaming. "It was like a Jaws moment," Beran says. As the first giant wave bore down, two Thai coast guard boats in the bay suddenly shot into the air. The couple ran for their lives, hurdling barefoot over rough ground and fences while the wall of water chased them. They scaled a brick wall and joined 10 others on the roof of a house until it collapsed, hurling them into 5-m-deep water for nearly two hours. Spraggon went under several times. "We grabbed onto some branches of a tree and tried to hug the tree until the water receded," Beran says. They also grabbed an 8-year-old Swedish girl who had been near them on the beach. In perfect English, she asked, "Oh no, where are my brother and my parents?"

The three managed to join an elderly German couple and some Thai men and women in the trees. When the water level dropped, other Thais rescued them. Beran and Spraggon knew how lucky they were. They don't know what happened to the Swedish child after she was rescued or whether her family survived.

Tens of thousands of Europeans — including an especially large number escaping the wintertime darkness of Scandinavia — were enjoying the Asian sunshine when the tsunami hit. Hundreds are confirmed dead — Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, Frenchmen, Britons, Germans, Danes and on and on — with thousands still missing. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen spoke of "an incomprehensible tragedy of national

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nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu) proportions," but that was an understatement — the tragedy was quintessentially international. Europe and the entire world watched the disaster unfold on television and the Internet — images that inevitably brought to mind the Bali terrorist bombing of 2002 — and slowly came to grips with the scope of the catastrophe. "It was awful," said Astrid von Sternheim, 27, as she waited at Frankfurt Airport for her parents Werner and Diana to arrive from Patong Beach in Phuket. "We saw the pictures on television and recognized the street and the hotels." Her parents survived because they happened to be on an upper floor.

Families were torn apart, lovers separated forever, by the merciless waves that made no distinction between rich and poor, famous and unknown. A British woman in Phuket was swept away while buying suntan lotion. An Austrian woman who used a wheelchair was carried off by the surf. British film director Richard Attenborough lost his 14-year-old granddaughter, Lucy, in Phuket. Attenborough's daughter, Jane Holland, 49, and her mother-in-law are missing. So is British fashion photographer Simon Atlee, 33, who was on vacation in Phuket with his girlfriend, Czech model Petra Nemcova, 25. Nemcova suffered a broken pelvis, but survived by clinging to a palm tree and floating in the water amid bodies and debris for eight hours. Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl watched the tsunami from the third-floor balcony of his hotel room in Thalpe, Sri Lanka. "I recalled images from the war, which I experienced as a boy," Kohl wrote in the tabloid Bild. "It appeared as if after a heavy bombing raid."

Amid so much death and heartbreak, there were also miracles. A 10-year-old British girl, Tilly Smith, was credited with saving 100 lives by recognizing the signs of a tsunami and sounding a warning in time to clear Maikhao Beach in Phuket. The raging waters forced an Australian mother named Jillian Searle to let go of her 5-year-old so she could hang onto her 2-year-old. Another woman nearby grabbed the 5-year-old but couldn't hold on, either. Searle "thought he was dead." But two hours later, she found him alive.

As the week wore on, Europe's stunned horror gave way to action. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder cut short his holiday to help direct relief efforts and pledged $27 million in aid; France promised $56 million and sent Foreign Minister Michel Barnier to Thailand; Sweden offered $76 million; and the British government kicked in $96 million. Britons raised another $114 million for a consortium of charities by Saturday. Corporations throughout Europe made donations, often matching their employees' contributions.

Austria, Norway and Sweden were among the countries that declared national days of mourning, and most countries set up hot lines for relatives. Many organized airlifts to evacuate their citizens, Britain sent two warships, and planes left Europe with bottled water, aid equipment and coffins. Fire fighters from Greece and forensic specialists from Germany and Britain rushed to the devastated areas. Thousands of Italians offered to adopt children orphaned by the tragedy and several Italian towns canceled their New Year's Eve fireworks and donated the money saved to the victims. Marvin Gerdel, 7, from Halver, Germany, went door-to-door with his mother asking for donations and raised $85. "I could not join my friends in the snowball fight," he said, "because this was more important."

• HELEN GIBSON and ANDREA GERLIN
• Europe mourned its many citizens lost in the tragedy — and dug deep to aid victims