Ali Ahmed, 19, who was on his first holiday without his parents, leapt into the water at the Falls of Bruar in Perthshire to save his struggling friend but was dragged under the water himself.

He and the group had been warned about the currents when they arrived at the falls near Blair Atholl.

One of their group, Zein Shivli Khalifa, told Poplar Coroner’s Court in London they had been told about 12-foot waters in a cave at the waterfall before they got in to swim.

Mr Khalifa, 19, and Mr Ahmed went in the water first before getting out and urging a friend to jump in too.

He said: “As soon as he jumped, he went under. He swam back up and, as soon as he swam up, he realised the current was pushing him towards the cave and he started panicking.”

Both men went after their friend and pulled him to safety, but Mr Ahmed, a fast food worker, was sucked into the cave by the current – described by locals as “like a washing machine on spin”.

Mr Khalifa told the inquest: “I was trying to swim out and our friends said, ‘What’s happened? Where’s Ali?’.

“Ali thought both of us were drowning so he was trying to help us and I think the current pushed him into the cave or something.

“This is the point they were shouting, ‘Ali is drowning’.” The teenager said he tried to pull

Mr Ahmed out but he was unresponsive.

Emergency services also tried to save Mr Ahmed but decided it was too dangerous to go after him. Divers recovered his body the next day.

Ruling the death on July 13 an accident, Coroner Mary Hassell said: “All of the evidence points in the direction Ali was out swimming with his friends, having a good time, and was pulled underwater by a current.

“In spite of very strenuous efforts of his friends to save him, which were very nearly successful, he succumbed to the cold and fatigue of swimming against the current and he was drowned as a consequence.”

She added that Mr Khalifa was “terribly brave for going after his friend”.