A HAMPSHIRE man who survived the Bahrain boat disaster in which another local man died has spoken of the terrifying moment the craft sank.

Father-of-two Simon Hill was aboard the ill-fated vessel when it went down, killing 58 people, including 12 Britons.

Yesterday, as Mr Hill talked exclusively to the Daily Echo from the Middle East, reliving the panic and horror as the boat went down, he also revealed former Eastleigh man Philip Moody was among the dead.

He said Phil had lived in Bahrain with his wife, but had grown up in and around Eastleigh, playing football for a North Baddesley youth team when he was younger.

He said: "I can't tell you how much he will be missed. Phil was a man I took to straight away and we would spend hours bantering about how we grew up in the Southampton area, and especially our mutual support for The Saints.

"I have lost a close friend and someone with whom I shared some very fond memories. The ex-pat community out here is very close, and because of our connection to Hampshire, Phil and I had quickly become friends.

It wasn't just going out for a drink after work, it was meeting up for tennis or football, and knowing you had a friend with whom you could talk about life.

The 50-year-old, who worked as a sales manager for Midlands-based company RMD Kwikform, is understood to have drowned though his wife Alison survived.

Full report on the tragedy in tonight's Daily Echo