Backpacker tells of lucky escape from Christchurch quake

A BACKPACKER has told of his terror at being caught up in the devastating Christchurch earthqake.

Brian Lithgow, from Bellevue in Edinburgh, was working in a bar in the Belfast area of the New Zealand city - around four miles from the city centre - when the country's worst natural disaster for 80 years hit.

The 28-year-old, who escaped unhurt, has been backpacking around the world with his girlfriend Patricia Devine since September last year, with the pair arriving in New Zealand in December. They had only been in Christchurch for five days before the quake.

Brian, who worked as a supervisor at the former Crags Sports Centre before going travelling, said: "All of a sudden, everything started shuddering really violently and all the bottles fell off the shelves. I can only describe it as like being rattled around in a jar - it was really scary.

"I just froze because I didn't really know what to do. Then my natural instinct took over and I ran outside.

"People were really freaked and were just running about the place - it was hysteria.

"After the violent shock passed, the ground was still wobbling, almost like a jelly. All the cars were wobbling around.

"Nobody knew what to do - I can't even begin to imagine what it was like in the middle of town. It was a completely horrendous experience and something I will never forget."

Shortly after the initial tremor, Brian, along with some customers from the bar and the other staff, returned inside but an aftershock struck around 10 minutes later.

"I was in a walk-in chiller at the time and all the bottles of wine started smashing around me, so I ran back outside," Brian said.

"When we went back inside the bar, we turned on the news and watched what was happening in town. Buildings had been completely and utterly decimated; buildings that I had been walking past not long before, so I was very lucky."

Meanwhile, Patricia, who is originally from Derry in Northern Ireland, had been driving to the office where she worked as an events co-ordinator in the centre of town when the earthquake struck.

Uninjured, the 29-year-old made her way to the pub - Robbie's Bar and Bistro - where Brian was working and the pair drove back to the house they had been sharing with other travellers.

Brian said: "The ground-floor windows of the house were smashed. Our room looked like a bomb had hit it."

The couple, who stayed with a friend in Dunedin - more than 200km south of Christchurch - for a few nights following the earthquake, had planned to stay in New Zealand for up to six months but will now leave for Australia today.

More than 100 people have been killed in the earthquake and several buildings demolished, with many areas left without power or water.