Before the storm: The young Jersey musicians with Madeiran officials including the Director General of Immigration, Gonzalo Nuno Santos, a frequent visitor to Jersey (left), and group leader Chris George (third from right)

A GROUP of young Jersey musicians – the youngest aged just 12 – had to wade through muddy water and debris after being caught up in the Madeiran disaster.

The group of ten students and three staff, who are all safe, were in the island to work with young Madeiran musicians at the Escola Des Artes in Funchal and had been due to play at a number of concerts.

Yesterday the group’s leader, Chris George, told the JEP how he and his students witnessed at first hand the devastation which has claimed so many lives so far.

‘We had spent the morning between 9 and 11 o’clock in rehearsals at the Escola Des Artes, but at about 11 the director of the school came to us and said that the afternoon’s concert had been cancelled because of the weather,’ he said.

‘He said we had to immediately get back to our hotel. We weren’t aware at that time how big the situation was going to get. The rain was extremely heavy but it had been raining frequently every day we had been there.’

Mr George said that it was not until the group saw muddy water stretching out to sea that they realised that something serious was happening.

• Full reports on this group’s lucky escape and on others affected by the tragedy are published in today’s JEP