A survivor of a rock fall which claimed the lives of two young Scout leaders yesterday told how he saw his companions engulfed by falling boulders.

Mr Stuart Perkins, 20, and Mr David Weaver, 21, were buried alive under tonnes of sandstone when an overhang collapsed early yesterday morning.

The two men were relaxing around a campfire with the survivor, Mr Marcus Hill, when a rock face gave way near the village of Cleobury Mortimer, in Shropshire.

Mr Hill, 25, said the fall happened ''without warning'' and left Mr Perkins and Mr Weaver with ''no chance whatsoever'' of escaping.

Emergency crews worked for three hours using a JCB digger to unearth the two men's bodies which were entombed under 10 tonnes of rock.

Mr Hill, a technician who works for Malvern Hills District Council, told a press conference in Kidderminster that he managed to scramble over the rocks covering the Scout leaders and raise the alarm.

He also revealed that 12 Scouts had gathered under the overhang just two hours before the rock-fall.

He said: ''We were sitting around the fire and, without warning, the rocks just fell in on us. They didn't see it coming and didn't have a chance to do anything.''

Clearly distressed by his ordeal and still dressed in his Scout leader's uniform, Mr Hill added that he was saved only because he had been sitting under the inner half of the overhang which did not collapse.

He described how after the incident he raced to a phone box to summon police, who arrived within six minutes and helped him search for his colleagues.

All three men involved in the incident lived in Kidderminster and were part of a five-strong team supervising 12 boys aged between 11 and 15 from the Worcestershire town's 11th Scout Group.

Mr Weaver, a marketing student at Southampton University, Mr Perkins, an assistant with a bathroom fittings firm, and Mr Hill had known each other since all three joined the Scouts as youngsters.

The families of both men said the victims were dedicated to the Scouting movement and enjoyed working with youngsters and outdoor activities.

Mr Weaver's brother, Paul, 19, said: ''He was a madcap character. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's not much more you can say. David and Stuart grew up together in the Cubs and the Scouts.''

Mr Perkins' parents, Mr Michael Perkins and his wife, Christina, who live near the Scout group's headquarters in Broadwaters Drive, Kidderminster, said they were having difficulty coming to terms with the tragedy.

Mr Perkins said: ''It hasn't sunk in yet. Stuart was very, very involved with the Scouts. It was the main interest in his life along with his car, a Triumph Spitfire.''

Scout Association workers paid tribute to the two dead men and stressed that the accident could not have been foreseen.

Mr Gareth Roberts, regional officer for the West Midlands branch of the association, said: ''These young men were doing something that they must have believed to be absolutely safe - sitting around a camp fire, in true Scout style, at the end of the day.

''It was by any measure a tragic accident. They had camped their for many years and there was nothing to suggest this location was unsafe.''

Investigations into the cause of the collapse were continuing last night but firefighters believe heat from the camp fire may have weakened the rock which collapsed.