The LAST time Anders Bang-Ericsson saw Ragnar, his two-and-half-year-old son, the boy was ‘‘floating away on the waves, away from me, on his blue water wings.’’

The tsunami demolished the two-story beachfront resort villa where the family had taken refuge and wrenched Ragnar from his father’s grasp.

The morning after Christmas, the Bang-Ericssons were at the pool by 9 a.m. ‘‘It was a perfect morning, and we had just had breakfast and we were playing with little Ragnar in the swimming pool in the back of the bungalows,’’ Bang Ericsson said, recounting his last minutes with his only child. ‘‘Suddenly someone came shouting, saying, ‘climb up, there is a tidal wave coming’.’’

‘‘It was like being in a big washing machine, thrown around, tumbled around,’’ Bang Ericsson said, speaking deliberately for fear of losing control. ‘‘I had to change grip in order to swim better. But then I lost hold of him for a second. The last thing he said to me was, ‘Daddy, I am scared’.’’

Almost two weeks after the tsunami roared through their lives, Bang Ericsson and his wife, Lise, sat on the edge of a hotel room bed here Thursday night, recounting their hope that Ragnar, in his beloved water wings, had been swept into the temporary care of a stranger. ‘‘If he didn’t get caught into debris, maybe he floated ashore and is alive and well somewhere,’’ Bang Ericsson, a Swede, said of their son, who started swimming lessons at 6 months. ‘‘We will stay here in Thailand until we know one way or other. We cannot leave him. He is just a small boy.’’

Ragnar’s disappearance from Khao Lak, a family-oriented resort established as an alternative to the wilder singles scene at Phuket Island, adds to a cruel statistic: Of the nearly 700 Swedes confirmed missing or dead, 133, or almost 20 per cent, are 20 years or younger, according to a report by the Swedish police. As many as 1,300 more Swedes are unaccounted for.

Only a fraction of the bodies from southern Thailand’s beaches have been identified. Officials say identification will hinge almost entirely on matching DNA of the bodies with family members’, a process expected to take several months.

Thailand’s interior minister, Bhokin Bhalakula, called on Friday for an end to the hunt for bodies so that the country could focus more on reconstruction. Searchers on the ground, and family members, say it is too early to give up.

Politics muddy relief efforts

HAMBANTOTA: On Saturday, Sri Lanka stopped UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan from visiting disaster areas controlled by the LTTE. Annan visited Hambantota, a tourist resort in southeastern Sri Lanka, which has been largely ruined. But he was prevented from visiting the island’s north and east, where he had been invited by LTTE rebels. “I am here on a humanitarian mission. I would like to visit all the areas, but as you know I am here as a guest of the government and they set the itinerary,’’ said Annan. —Reuters