FROM the terror of the quake, to the anguish and chaos of its aftermath – a Burton woman caught-up in the Nepalese earthquake has told of her experiences.

Louise Lock, 30, was almost at the end of a three-week trip taking in China, Tibet and Nepal, when the disaster struck. High in the mountains a few hours drive from the Tibetan border her tour group was lunching in a restaurant when the terrifying 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit.

“The noise was just incredible and it didn’t stop," she said. "Chairs started flying, tables flipped, everyone was running everywhere. We were falling over again and again, when we got outside to the pavement we threw ourselves on the gravel and just lay there.”

When it subsided she saw “windows smashed, cars covered in rocks, landslips, people screaming.” With roads impassable and massive aftershocks coming throughout the day, the group couldn’t move on for fear of more rockfalls and landslips. After a night outside on the ground they began to pick their way down the mountains on foot, coming to a remote village destroyed by the quake.

“There were bodies being pulled out of the rubble and put on the sides of the road, people screaming,” she said. “I saw someone doing open surgery on the side of the road. Houses and shops had collapsed, there was glass everywhere.”

There she gave children supplies from her rucksack. “I asked them about their school,” added Louise, who who is training to be a primary school teacher. “They said their school was gone.”

From there a van took them on to Kathmandu which had been hit hard by the quake, now know to have claimed at least 6,000 lives.

“All I could think was where I was going to run too if the tremors started again,” she said. “My heart felt like it was going to pop out of my chest. I couldn’t sleep, I didn’t want to eat.”

“People were sleeping on the pavements, climbing in the rubble chucking down bricks, shouting to each other. I saw people holding on to wrapped up bodies, walking with big cloth sacks of their belongings. I knew how I was feeling – and my house hadn’t been destroyed my family weren’t missing – God knows what was going through their minds. I knew I could go home – they didn’t have that luxury. So many times I thought I would stay and help.”

Already booked on a flight on home on the April 27, two days after the quake, Louise made her way to the airport where she found hoards queuing, fights breaking out, monkeys scuttling over computers after the roof collapsed, and boarding passes being written by hand. She managed to get her flight to Delhi and, after another 19 hour wait there, finally got on a flight home.

The Winchester University student hasn’t been able to watch any coverage of the disaster since she returned home. With the children they met in her mind, she is determined to help, and plans a London to Paris bike ride, with the aim of raising enough to rebuild a school.