A British woman who survived the Nepal earthquake has recounted the horrifying moments she “thought the world was ending”.
The devastating quake struck on the first day of Alice Wilson’s trip of a lifetime to Nepal and India.
Her hotel in the centre of Kathmandu was razed by the tremors – but by chance the 27-year-old had gone with a stranger to the hills of Nagarkot, 20 miles east of the capital city.
“I absolutely feel there was an angel looking over me,” she told Sky News. “To go up into the hills with someone I don’t know is out of character – but it saved my life.”
Ms Wilson, from Welham Green in Hertfordshire, revealed how locals laughed when the tremors began.
“They thought it was something normal happening to the hill,” she said.
“It was a complete shock. I wasn’t sure if it was a landslide or an earthquake. The earth was shaking so hard that it knocked us off our feet. I was so scared.”
It was not until the party began its journey back that Ms Wilson began to understand the scale of the destruction.
“I saw a house fall before my eyes, rocks were hitting our car,” she said.
“The freeway had so many cracks in it. People were driving with injured people hanging out of their boots.
“We drove through villages where pretty much every single house had fallen. There were people everywhere, bodies – it was absolutely horrendous.
“I saw them digging bodies out of a house. It doesn’t feel real when I say it. I’ll never forget it.
“These images are going to stay with me.”
Seismologists say there have been at least 70 aftershocks following Saturday’s 7.9 magnitude quake.
