On Boxing Day, hundreds of survivors joined a candlelight vigil in the resort hub of Khao Lak, southwest Thailand, to mark a decade since the tsunami claimed 220,000 lives across 14 nations.

KHAO LAK: Ten years after the Indian Ocean tsunami, foreign tourists who survived the crushing waves still return to the Thai beaches where thousands lost loved ones, seeking recovery and solace.

As soon as I could walk properly, we came back, said Steve McQueenie, a detective for Londons Metropolitan Police, explaining the powerful urge to revisit Thailand just six months after the December 26, 2004, disaster to make sense of the unfathomable.

On Boxing Day this year the 46-year-old Glaswegian again returned, joining hundreds of other survivors at a candlelight vigil in the resort hub of Khao Lak, southwest Thailand, to mark a decade since the tsunami claimed 220,000 lives across 14 nations.

Memories of the calamity are never far away for McQueenie and his wife Nicola, who survived waters that killed 5,395 in Thailand alone half of them foreign holidaymakers celebrating Christmas.

Sitting before a tranquil Andaman Sea, just a few metres (feet) from where they had stayed, he recalls the sudden huge brown wall of water that ripped apart their bungalow and plunged him underwater.

When I reached the surface, everything I could see was water. I couldnt see any buildings above it, I couldnt see inland really, and it just felt wed been dropped in the middle of a really rough ocean.

Flung further inland by the colossal wave, he kept afloat long enough to latch onto a palm tree until the water retreated.

In spite of a severe leg injury the policeman limped towards the road and was eventually transported up into the hills by Thais who feared more waves would strike.

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Tourist survivors revisit tsunami-hit Thai beaches