A teacher was in tears today as he described how a 14-year-old girl slipped out of his grasp and was washed away to her death as he tried to rescue her from a fast flowing river.

Andy Miller, 48, told a jury at Harrogate Magistrates Court how he was leading a "river walk" in Stainforth Beck, near Settle, North Yorkshire, when he heard shouts and saw some people had been washed away.

Mr Miller was giving evidence on the sixth day of the inquest into the deaths of Rochelle Cauvet, 14, and Hannah Black, 13, who died on the trip on October 10, 2000, organised by Royds School, Oulton, near Leeds.

Mr Miller said he immediately ran down the river when he realised people had been swept down stream.

He eventually found a place on the beck's side where he could grab a girl he later learned was Rochelle, but both he and teenager were swept away.

He said: "I managed to grab hold of a broken branch that hung over the stream. I had held on to the branch and held on to Rochelle."

In tears, he added: "But unfortunately I could not keep hold of Rochelle." Rochelle's family looked intently at the teacher as he described the incident sitting just three feet away.