Published: Sunday, 7th February, 2010 4:00pm

Man drowned after freak wave hit African coast

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A MAN drowned in the sea at an exotic holiday resort after he and his brother got into difficulties in choppy conditions, an inquest heard.

Michael Litwin and his younger brother Mark were swimming in the water at Cape Verde, West Africa, when they were carried out to sea by a massive wave.

Mark told the coroner that he managed to swim to safety - but his 62-year-old sibling drowned as he tried to reach the shore.

The pair had been on holiday with another brother, Stephen, on the exotic peninsula near Senegal when the tragedy happened.

Mark said he spent "what seemed like an hour" searching the shoreline for Michael, from Faversham Road, Sandhurst, before finding his body.

He said to Coroner Andrew Bradley, at the inquest in Basingstoke on Wednesday last week: "We were sort of just jumping and playing about in the waves obviously.

"It felt as if the tide was going out and we were moving out with it. But it wasn't going out it was coming in. We decided to head back into the shore. Just as we turned our backs a huge wave hit our backs.

"When we emerged we had been taken out quite a distance - 400 or 500 yards -we started swimming back but we were not getting anywhere."

Although Mark got back to the shore, Michael - known as Mick - never made it back.

He said that he feared neither of them was going to get out of the fierce crashing sea.

"I was saying to him (Michael) 'I am okay, I am okay'. I got hit by quite a large wave and I thought I may not survive and my next breath would be water.

"I was underwater for a long time."

Stephen Litwin was back at their hotel three miles away, oblivious to the unfolding seaside tragedy.

A post mortem examination revealed married father Michael Litwin died as a result of drowning during the incident in November last year.

Mr Bradley ruled the death was an accident.