North holidaymakers tell of Spanish earthquake terror

May 15 2011 by Sara Nichol, Sunday Sun

NORTH holidaymakers have described their experiences amid the horrific Spanish earthquake that claimed nine lives.

Flights arrived at Newcastle International Airport bringing travellers back from Murcia, the nearest airport to Lorca, where the earthquake hit.

While many felt the tremor up to 100km away, one couple had been in the centre of the historic town just two days before the disaster struck.

John Evans and his wife Jennifer had been visiting friends in Lorca but had returned to their apartment 20 minutes away in Bolnevo.

The couple were watching TV when they felt the room shake. But they didn’t realise the chaos that was unfolding in Lorca until the next morning.

The pair awoke to see images of the Burger King store they’d visited just 48 hours earlier destroyed.

Mr Evans, 60, of Middlesbrough, said: “All of a sudden we felt the room shake. The vibrations were a lot stronger than a big tremor in England but it didn’t last as long, just two or three seconds.

“You could really feel the vibrations – the settee we were sitting on shook. The whole apartment shook and my wife said ‘What’s that?’ Straight away I said ‘It’s an earthquake’.

“But we didn’t realise how bad it was at that point. We had been in the town where the quake struck just two days beforehand. We’d been visiting friends and had gone sightseeing.

“While we were there we had visited Burger King. The morning after we felt the apartment shake we saw images of that Burger King with cars crushed all around it and rubble everywhere. It was a bit of a shock.

“I really feel for the people in Lorca.”