Honour for young girl who saved tourists from tsunami

Tilly Smith, the 10-year-old British girl whose geography lessons helped her save 100 tourists from a Thai beach hit by last year's Boxing Day tsunami, has been named Child of the Year by readers of a French children's newspaper.

She came ahead of a South African Aids orphan, a six-year-old girl who survived a kidnapping by paedophiles and a chart-topping young Parisian pop singer to win the Mon Quotidien award.

Tilly had studied tsunamis with her geography teacher, Andrew Kearney, shortly before flying to Thailand for a holiday with her parents and younger sister last year.

As she watched the waves suddenly begin to recede, she warned her mother, Penny, that the beach was about to be struck by a tsunami. Mrs Smith and her husband, Colin, from Oxshott, Surrey, alerted other holidaymakers and hotel staff and scores of people were cleared from Maikhao beach at Phuket.

Tilly, now 11, and back in Thailand for anniversary commemorations of the disaster, said yesterday: "It's really good, just to know about tsunamis or any natural hazard in case you are in one.

"I'm very glad that I was able to say on the beach that a tsunami was coming. And I'm glad that they listened to me."

She had earlier said that the state of the sea, which was "sizzling and bubbling" was "exactly the same as in my geography lesson".

This evening, Tilly will read a Thai poem entitled Tsunami at a candle-light vigil to commemorate victims of the disaster.

She is unaware of her remarkable popularity among French children. Her picture appears on tomorrow's front page of Mon Quotidien, which is read by 10 to 14-year-olds.

"Our readers chose Tilly because they could identify with her," said François Dufour, the editor-in-chief. "To be a pop star at 11 seems impossible, and the idea of having Aids or being kidnapped is remote from their lives."

On Saturday, 60 British relatives and survivors of the tsunami held a remembrance service in Patong.