The widow of the British man killed by a shark while snorkelling in the Seychelles has spoken of the horrific moment when she heard her husband being attacked.
Choking back tears, Gemma Redmond has spoken of how she was sunbathing on Anse Lazio beach, on the island of Praslin on Tuesday, when she heard "the most awful scream".
Gemma, a 27-year-old teacher, told the BBC how she had raced across the beach to the boat which brought her husband to shore following the shark attack.
At this point, Ian was still conscious. Gemma said that she held his hand and said "I love you" before he was taken away by helpers. The couple were on their honeymoon.
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Gemma is expected to be flying her husband's body home to Wigan today. His funeral is expected to take place in the same church in which the couple married on August 6.
Describing what happened, she told the BBC: “It was very, very clear, the sea is beautiful around here. I could see the top of his snorkel because he had a bright orange band around it so I could follow where he was.
“All of a sudden I heard this ‘Help!’ and I thought at first he was sneezing because when he snorkelled the day before he sneezed into his snorkel and it made this most tremendous noise around the bay.
“I looked up again and I heard ‘Help!’ and the most awful scream. I can still hear it when I close my eyes.
“He has never screamed like that before because he is such a strong man, so brave.”
She added: “The man who had pulled the speedboat in wouldn’t let me go to it, and I screamed at him ‘it’s my husband’. He looked me in the eyes and said: ‘Go on then.’
“I could see Ian was laid back in the boat, his arms out, and he was conscious. He looked up at me and I looked at him and I could see a mixture in his eyes of fear and of a realisation, a relief, that he had seen me, that I was there.
“I reached down my hand and I held his face, I grabbed hold of his face and got his hand and held it to my chest and said to him: ‘You’re going to be all right. We’re going to look after you, we’re going to sort you out'.
“I think I told him I loved him very much – I hope I did – and then a man dragged me away.
“They were very kind, the men, they picked me up, I don’t remember my legs touching the floor, they dragged me away, I was very, very distressed.
“They took him out of the boat and brought him somewhere higher up on the beach.”
