A survivor of the Algarve beach drowning has described the desperate attempts to save his son from a whirlpool in which four other parents died.

Dean Plumb, 40, dashed into the sea when he realised that Samuel, 12, was with a group of children who were trapped by a treacherous current at Praia do Tonel.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Plumb wept as he recalled the 30-minute ordeal in which his friends Robert and Deborah Fry and Jean Dinsmore and a German tourist were swept to their deaths.

Mr Plumb, his wife Susan, 39, and their sons Samuel and Harry, 5, had gone to the picturesque cove on Monday afternoon. They were joined by Mrs Dismore, 43, her husband, Roy, 47, and their children Alexander, 9 and Lydia, 11, and Mr and Mrs Fry, 53, and 49, and their children George, 9, and Rosie, 11.

“We spent a lot of time in the water, body-boarding and swimming. It was perfect, the waves were great fun and we did a rota with the children, with some of us with them as they swam or played football and one of us always looking after our stuff on the beach,” recalled Mr Plumb, of South Marston near Swindon.

“I was looking after everything when some of the children went back in the water. It was probably the last swim of the day before we would have gone home.”

But the tide had begun to change and the outgoing water had created a whirlpool close to a rock in the middle of the cove. Although the water was only chest height, the children began to be dragged out to sea.

Mr Plumb, a BA crew manager, said: “There was a sudden commotion down on the beach. One of the children was crying and I realised something had gone very wrong. I ran down and saw my eldest son Sam was in the water.

“I stripped off and swam towards him. I shouted, ‘I will meet you half way’. He shouted, ‘Dad the waves are taking us farther out’. We were hit by a big, aggressive wave and I knew exactly at that point that we were in a lot of trouble.

“I reached Sam and somehow pulled him forward, but it seemed like every five seconds we were hit by another large wave. They were so strong that you couldn’t get air, it was disorientating.”

By now the father and son had been dragged up to the giant rock - known locally as Leixao - that offered the only sanctuary before they were swept out. “I was desperate to get us to that. It felt risky, because the waves could dash us against it, but it felt like our best chance,” Mr Plumb said. “We managed to swim like mad for that, and I could see two surfers on their boards. I hurled Sam through the water towards them.

“I shouted, ‘Help the boy, save the boy’. They were great, they grabbed him and clung on.” With his son safe and other surfers rescuing the remaining children, Mr Plumb realised that he would have to return to the beach.

“But from that point on I was just in a constant fight with the rip-tide. You can see it coming towards you like an Exocet, but you can’t do anything about it. The waves just hit you and hit you. When they clear, you are somewhere totally different because they’ve tossed you around.

“There was a time when I managed to climb on to the big central rock and then I thought I would be OK. But I was too exhausted, I didn’t have the strength, and another wave knocked me off and smashed me over the rocks. I went from elation to absolute despair. I tried to claw back on to it but I couldn’t resist the strength of the waves and they took me farther out.”

By now, all of the children were out but the surfers were struggling with the heavier adults.

“I don’t know how long I was out there but it felt like at least half an hour, and the waves kept breaking over me. One time I surfaced near a surfer, but I was out of reach. I finally got to him and he shouted, ‘Grab the board, grab the board’, but then this almighty wave hit us and sent us both spiralling.

“I was losing all strength. I could feel I was coming up for air and breathing out water I had breathed in. It felt like it was in my lungs. My legs and arms were so tired. I tried to swim on my back because I didn’t have the strength to keep doing front crawl, and that did seem to get me closer to the beach.

“The next thing I remember is people dragging me forward. Without them I didn’t have the orientation or the energy to even drag myself to shore. From that point I just closed down. I remember people were comforting me. I could see my youngest son Harry and I could hear Sue. I didn’t know then that Sam was safe, but I saw him later. The next thing I remember was paramedics giving me an oxygen mask.”

Mr Plumb was still at the Barlavento Algarvio hospital in Portimão yesterday where he is being treated for the cuts that cover his body and is receiving trauma counselling. Interviews with the other witnesses have been completed and the surviving parents will not face a police investigation. Warning signs in English will now be placed at all dangerous locations on the Algarve’s beaches.

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