FRIENDS of a teenager who was swept to her death training for the Ten Tors challenge have told how they tried desperately to haul her out of the raging river.

Charlotte Shaw was just 14 when she drowned in the swollen Wollabrook, in "horrendous" weather during a trial run for the Army-organised event.

Yesterday, the inquest into her death heard how a close friend tried to pull Charlotte from the deadly flow, but she was torn from his grasp. The hearing also heard a statement by the Scout master who guided the team over the river, who has since died of cancer.

Neil Addington was among the group from Bideford's Edgehill College, which has since been renamed Kingsley School, on the tragic day on March 4, 2007.

In his police statement, given shortly after the tragedy, he relived the dreadful moments when Charlotte tumbled into the torrent, which was swollen to four times its normal width.

He said he immediately ran after her, and was one of the few who could keep up. "We were chasing her down the river, and telling her to mind her head, and telling her where rocks were," he said.

"She managed to get her backpack off, and she held on to a bush for a little bit, but the power of the water pushed her straight down. I got hold of her, but I didn't have the strength to pull her up, because of the power of the river."

Neil eventually lost sight of his team mate when he slipped and fell, and she was swept out of view. He told officers that his first impression of crossing the frothing white river was that it would be "suicide".

On Tuesday, 19-year-old Sunni Lui, the eldest in the group, relayed how he also sped after Charlotte, but repeatedly fell on the boggy ground. The team was soaked through and shattered on the second day of their trek.

After a fine Saturday, they were disheartened to wake to gale force winds and sheeting rain on the Sunday. Their teachers had already left the camp, and when they met at the first check point, they pleaded to be allowed to go home. But Chris Fuller urged them to carry on, saying it would make the event itself seem "easy". Neil yesterday said the group felt they had "no choice" but to continue, but later conceded that the youngsters could have refused.

When the team reached the river, they realised it was too dangerous to cross at the planned point. They phoned Mr Fuller, who advised them to go around it, a diversion of several kilometres. They felt too exhausted to take on the extra distance, and passing Ten Tors veteran Trevor Wills, who was leading the 19th Exeter Sea Scouts, stepped in to help.

Mr Wills has died of cancer since the tragedy. Shortly after the incident, he told police he held a mountaineering qualification, and directed the group to a place where he had earlier crossed, where they could jump to a small island mid-way. He helped each teenager over, but Yasmin Moore struggled with the jump. Mr Wills told her to hand her bag to Charlotte. Yasmin crossed and he told Charlotte to throw the rucksack.

She tried, but dropped the bag and instinctively grabbed it. She toppled in, and the bag pulled her along. "I tried to grab at her, but it took seconds, and she disappeared," his statement read. Charlotte's body was retrieved by rescue helicopter personnel half-a-kilometre downstream.

Mr Wills told police he was "devastated" by her death. The statement read: "Thinking about it now, I should have got her to leave the rucksack on the ground, got them all across and got the bag out later."

The group returned to tackle the Ten Tors challenge in May 2007, as a tribute to Charlotte. But they did not complete the course, as the event was abandoned because of extreme weather. Asked to compare the conditions with the fatal trial run, Neil Addington said: "I would say it was worse on March 4 than the event itself."

The inquest was adjourned until Monday.