Seventeen singer posts emotional tribute to wife and bandmates washed away by Indonesia tsunami

The lead singer of a band whose concert on Java was hit by the Indonesian tsunami issued an emotional appeal for fans to pray for his missing wife and band members swept away by the giant wave.

Riefian Fajarsyah, known as Ifan, was playing with his pop-rock band Seventeen at the Tanjung Lesung Beach Resort when a wall of water slammed into the stage, sending it surging through the crowd.

Swept out to sea, Mr Fajarsyah believed he would die but finally managed to make it back to shore. Two other band members and two of his crew, however, were killed, while his wife Dylan and drummer Andi have not been found.

In a message on his Instagram, the singer asked his 260,000 followers to pray for the return of the missing, and for those who had perished. 

“Bro @andi_seventeen, please come back home. I am the only one left," Mr Fajarsyah wrote of his drummer, Windu Andi Darmawan, known as Andi. 

He also pleaded for the safe return of his wife, Dylan Sahara, whose 26th birthday it was on Sunday. Underneath a black and white picture of the couple on a trip to Paris, Mr Fajarsyah wrote:  “Today is your birthday. I want to say happy birthday to you in person. Please come back home quickly, my dear @Dylan_Sahara."

To his deceased band and crew members, he bade goodbye. “May your souls rest with Allah,” the singer said. 

The popular band, who have released six albums in their 19 years together, were in the middle of the second song of their performance when the tsunami smashed through the beachside marquee.

A video of the moment it hit shows fans clapping and cheering before a wave rips under the stage, sending the band members and their equipment crashing into those dancing at the front. The footage then cuts out.

Mr Fajarsyah said that before he knew what was happening, he found himself in the sea. Unable to see much in the dark, he could hear cries of panic around him, and could vaguely make out flailing hands of those trying to stay above water - at least 10 people, he later estimated. 

Speaking to a national TV station, the singer said he had been close to giving up. “I didn’t think I could make to the beach line. I feel I am really in the sea and about to die,” he said.  With the noises around him fading into quiet, Mr Fajarsyah believed those around him had drowned. But at the last, he decided he must try to reach the shore, and prayed that he would survive. 

Trying desperately to swim back, he made little progress against the rushing water, and was again losing hope. But finally, he was hit by a floating box, and was able to use it to swim to a tree. He said later that he believed he had seen "probably around 20 to 24 corpses" in the sea.

Some 30 minutes later, after the water had receded, Mr Fajarsyah got down from the tree. Unable to walk normally and covered in scratches and cuts, he started searching, explaining:  "I have to find my band family as well as my wife."

On the beach, he found his bassist Muhammad Awal Nurbani, nicknamed Bani, dead. In tears, the singer helped move his body before being taken to the medical clinic himself. There he learned his road manager, Oki Wijaya, had also been killed. 

The band's guitarist, named as Herman, and another crew member, Ujang, were also later confirmed to have died. 

In a phone interview, the band's manager said they believed Mr Fajarsyah's wife might have survived, saying there had been a reported sighting of her at a makeshift clinic in a school building. However they had not yet been able to verify the report, with the road to that clinic badly damaged.

More than half of the 222 deaths confirmed by Sunday afternoon occurred in Pandeglang, the  area on Java's western tip where the concert was held. There alone, the tsunami claimed  the lives of at least 126 people, and the toll was expected to rise, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the country's disaster prevention agency, told a video conference.

Close to Jakarta and surrounding business areas, Pandeglang is a popular destination for local tourists seeking relaxation.