Smash hit

But their dash to safety had taken them not even as far as the entrance to the reserve. The bridge over the river to the reserve had shattered and they were trapped on one bank.

The panda keepers came to their rescue, improvising a new bridge using bamboo ladders and, one by one, the visitors crawled over to reach their bus.

But this was only the start of their ordeal. Mobile phone masts were down, roads were destroyed, villages were flattened and heavy rain was falling. Mrs Baker said that as they sat on their coach, the level of a nearby river continued to rise. “Each day we’d look at this gorge and see it rising,” she told Sky News.

“At one point we thought, ‘we’ve survived the earthquake but we’re going to get flooded out’, because we also heard at the top of the hill there was a big lake that was fit to burst.”

After much debate it was decided that the safest place to be was the hotel where they were supposed to stay. It stood on a small plateau in one of the widest parts of the valley. Workers from nearby construction sites used their diggers to clear a path for the bus through the debris and landslides blocking the seven-kilometre route.

“It was really dangerous,” Ms Wong said. “If any falling rocks hit our bus it could have been the end.”

They inched their way up the valley until they finally reached the hotel, but the building was so badly damaged it had to be evacuated. The coach was to be their home for three nights. The first night was filled with fear as the group tried to doze in their seats. “But there were so many aftershocks. Each time we would all run out of the bus.”

Ms Wong tried to cheer herself up by taking walks. She talked — after a fashion — to some of the local villagers. “I would say something to them. They would say something to me. And we would smile a lot.”

They lived on thin rice porridge. Ms Wong said: “I felt like Oliver Twist.” Her heart soared when one villager offered her an egg.

A small army unit was based not far away and was helping local villagers who had survived but were homeless. But conditions began to deteriorate: bottled water began to run out, and there was only one little toilet serving hundreds of people. It was soon filthy and the group began to worry about illness.

After three nights Ms Wong had the second biggest shock of her life. “Suddenly a helicopter landed. We were told to leave everything but our passports and hand luggage and to run.” They dashed towards their rescuers, but were ordered to leave behind anything they were carrying and to board.

Lisa Staples, the daughter of Diane and David Atkins, two of the British tourists, recalled receiving a phone call from her mum.

“She said, ‘it’s me, we’re safe’,” Ms Staples, from Portsmouth, said. “She had to repeat it before I could take it in. She told me they were being airlifted out.” Her mother next phoned at about 6.45am yesterday from the four-star Minshan Hotel in Chengdu.

From his hotel room last night Mr Atkins, 64, a former postmaster, spoke of his relief at being safe. “We’ve had an awful experience. This is the first true sleep I will have had in three days.”

Mrs Atkins, 63, said she was astounded the Chinese authorities had been able to locate and rescue them. “I’m amazed that it all happened so quickly — because the devastation throughout China, in that area that we were in, is horrendous.”

For Tony Baker, thinking of his family had sustained him as he prayed for rescue: “It’s brilliant now. I can’t wait to see the children.” He knew he had been lucky. “There have been so many deaths. It’s terrible.”

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