The mother of a four-year-old boy lost at sea has described the horrifying moment he fell from a seaside jetty into a "whirlpool".
Rachel McCollum told how Dylan Cecil slipped while just a yard away from her and his father Darren during a family holiday in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset.
The mother said she knew the moment her "gorgeous" and "bubbly" little boy disappeared under the water, she would not see him again.
"He was literally not even a metre away from me and he was jumping and slipped and I watched him fall in," she told the BBC.
"I jumped in straight after him - what more could I do? He went, I knew as soon as I jumped in I was not getting him back.
"It was a whirlpool, it dragged me, I could feel myself being pulled under so I don't know what my son went through."
His parents desperately tried to rescue him, and had to be pulled from the water by passers-by.
A large search and rescue operation was launched for Dylan, who was dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, but was called off at 4.30pm on Monday.
She thanked everyone who had searched for his body and implored people not to give up the hunt.
"I just want my son back," she added. "He is coming back, he's definitely coming back. I just don't want him to be lost out there and not come back at all."
Dylan was on holiday with his parents and two younger sisters, aged one and three, when the tragedy happened at 6pm on Sunday.
The family, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, had travelled down to the West Country to visit Dylan's grandparents in nearby Brean.
A growing pile of flowers, cuddly toys and tributes has been placed on the sea wall next to the 19th century jetty where he fell.
Hundreds of candles were lit at the scene in his memory.
Earlier, a Facebook page carrying a post apparently pretending to be from Dylan was removed after his mother said she had been "destroyed" by the comments.
Writing on her own Facebook page, Ms McCollum said: "How low can people be? I tried saving my son and a page (is) set up speaking like they are him."
Burnham-on-Sea has one of the highest tidal rise and fall ranges in the world, and is notorious for its dangerous mudflats.
