A Witney family were among those lucky to escape with their lives from the floods in the Cornish village of Boscastle.

Peter Templar and his wife Margaret moved to the village to run a hotel after living in Witney for 45 years. Two of their children, Jeanette Templar and Adrienne McLaughlin, still live in the town.

Miss McLaughlin, 37, of Broadway Close, was staying at the family hotel with her partner and their two children, nine-year-old Amber and Kieran, seven, during last week's disaster.

Mr Templar, 58, with his daughter's partner Shane Colwell, also of Broadway Close, evacuated 30 people in a human chain from his Riverside Hotel. They escaped to a nearby shop, but had to smash a window to get to the roof before being airlifted to safety. Miss McLaughlin said: "The children were upset, and you say it will be all right but you don't really know.

"It was my mum and Kieran who were airlifted first, then myself and Amber, because my two were the youngest children there. The fire crew and the air and sea rescue were absolutely fantastic.

"The children seem fine, but I don't think they realised how dangerous the situation was."

Jeanette Templar, 37, of Windrush Close, visits the hotel nearly every year but was at home when the flooding happened.

She added: "I didn't know anything about it until my dad phoned me on Monday night on somebody's mobile, just to say that he was all right. The reception was bad and I just made out him say watch the news. I didn't realise how frightening it was until I saw it on TV."

Mr Templar ran a wholesale food distribution business in Witney until 11 years ago. "I just fancied a change, and I love Cornwall," he said. The hotel, one of the first buildings to be hit by the rising waters, has been badly damaged but engineers have told the couple it is structurally sound.

Mr Templar said: "We've got a lot of people down here under-insured, and some of the old people aren't insured at all. We're thankful that no one died, which is miraculous, but people down here need all the help they can get."

"The first we knew anything was wrong we heard a huge crack like lightning or thunder, and within seconds there was a six-foot wave coming down the river at the back of the hotel.

"It was rising and rising, I remember England were 111 for three, and that's when we realised we were going to have some trouble."

After clearing the second floor of people, Mr Templar organised a human chain to get guests and family, including grandchildren Amber and Kieran, out through waist-high water. They took refuge in the top floor of a nearby green- grocers.

Mr Templar added: "Then we watched motor homes and vans coming down and smashing into houses and realised we were still in danger. Our only escape was the Velux window in the roof, so Shane and I smashed through using a pneumatic drill left behind by builders."

They moved into the top floor of an adjoining building, from where everyone, including Mr Templar's Alsatian Izzy, was winched to safety by helicopter. Mr Templar said: "It would have been terrifying but at the time we had to remain calm.

"It was a question of survival.

"I was more petrified when I did a live TV interview the following day."