I WAS in our office, which is on the 31st floor of our building, when I started to feel the building sway. The door of the cabinet in my office started to rattle, opening and closing. I looked out the window and I saw people running out onto the streets. It was then that I realised it was an earthquake.'

'As the building rocked, I felt nauseous and my first instinct was to hide under my table. The swaying continued for about 1 1/2 minutes and then it stopped.'

'After that, I got my colleagues together and we took the lift downstairs. We saw thousands of people outside. They were all from the office buildings nearby. We are located in Chengdu's central business district. Some were crying, others were in shock. Everyone was trying to make calls using their mobile phones but the networks were down. I couldn't get my wife on the phone.'

'We stayed downstairs for about two hours. It was very tense - people were still trying to get through to their families and friends on their mobiles.'

'At about 4pm, the people in charge of building management announced that they were going to close down the offices. They gave people a few minutes to gather their things. After that, people started to disperse slowly. I got a lift from a colleague and went home. I just met my wife half an hour ago. She was taking shelter in a park.'

'We are now outside because we heard on the radio that there could be another tremor between 10pm and midnight.'

'There are lots of people outside. Everyone is in the parks or just in open spaces now. Things are pretty orderly. Some parts of the city are in darkness because the power has gone out.'

'I intend to stay out here for a while more and work from home tomorrow as my home is on the third floor.'