Britons in quake wait to fly home

May 16 2008

BRITISH holidaymakers caught up in the China earthquake are waiting to return to the UK today after being found safe and well.

The 19 tourists, who were on a panda-watching trip, made contact yesterday, three days after the 7.9-magnitude tremor devastated Sichuan province.

Officials in China have said that the final death toll from Monday's disaster could top 50,000. Today Chinese president Hu Jintao flew into Sichuan to support quake victims and see the rescue efforts.

Rescue workers continue to search for tens of thousands of missing people feared to be buried among the rubble.

More than 72-hours after the earthquake hit, hopes of finding survivors are fading. Until yesterday, a group of 19 holidaying Britons were among those still unaccounted for.

The Foreign Office said 14 members of the group had now flown from the Wolong panda reserve to Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, by Chinese military helicopter.

David Atkins, aged 64, and his 63-year-old wife Diane, from Portchester, Hants, were among the Travel Collection group.

Speaking from an hotel in Chengdu, Mrs Atkins said she was washing her hands when the disaster struck, and thought she heard a train coming.

She said: "Then I thought it can't be a train here, this is more, and I opened the door and all the floor was moving up and my husband was running towards me, panic-stricken.

"Then we looked around and everybody was running and rocks were falling and then we looked up and the mountain just seemed to explode."