Horror moment 'tsunami wave' smashes into beach as injured people scream in terror

A ‘mini-tsunami’ has left eight people injured and sunbathers screaming in terror as it ripped across a tourist beach.

The fast-moving powerful wave dragged bathers towards rocks as they took a dip in the sea in the Costa de la Luz resort of Mazagon in Spain’s south-west province of Huelva. The drama has been blamed on manoeuvres by a 60,000 tonne cargo ship, with one witness saying: “It was a huge ship and then it caught the expansive wave like a tsunami, which absorbs the water and then expels it very forcefully.”

One of the bathers hurt had to be hospitalised. The woman, identified only as 28-year-old Rocio, said from her hospital bed late yesterday as she showed off a plaster cast on her leg “I’ve got a broken foot and I’m waiting to be operated on.

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“I was coming out of the water with a paddle board when the wave hit me from the left and knocked me to the ground. I couldn’t see anything and got trapped under the board. I only found out what had happened and that a ship was to blame when I got to hospital.”

She told a Spanish TV station: “I’ve got to have an operation on my foot and I’ve got a long period of rehabilitation ahead of me. It’s the last thing I wanted at the start of the summer.”

Footage of the incident, which occurred around 4pm on Wednesday at a beach called Las Maravillas, showed a dark-coloured mass of water speeding towards the beach before hitting a large rock in the water and rebounding back onto the sand.

A woman sunbathing on the beach could be overheard yelling: “The rock, the rock” as the wave came towards her and she got up and ran for safety. The ‘mini-tsunami ‘ left sunshades scattered over the sand.

The people hurt are thought to have been smashed against rocks to the left of where she had been sitting. One witness said afterwards on social media: “It passed very close to the shore and caused a strong wave that swept several people away. People were literally thrown to the ground.”

An investigation into the incident was ongoing today, with local authorities trying to ascertain whether the cargo ship had breached rules on how far out to sea it had to be and what speed it must stick to.

The local harbour master’s office said overnight a new speed limit in the area for this type of vessel had been set at 11.5 knots to avoid a repeat of the situation.