MP orders team to evacuate quake building

12 April 2012

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood led terrified colleagues to safety after an earthquake rocked their hotel in Bangladesh.

Former Army captain Mr Ellwood ordered 24 Tory volunteers into the street when the quake, which has claimed more than 70 lives in the Himalayas, shook the building on Sunday.

The team, who are working on a social action project, described feeling the hotel sway under the force of the 6.8 tremor.

Rescue crews have been battling against landslides, heavy rain and fog to reach the epicentre in Sikkim, 250 miles from the hotel in Sylhet.

St Albans MP Anne Main, one of four MPs on the trip, said: "The hotel swayed and it was a really scary experience. I could hear the tiles cracking and the windows shook.

"My colleague Tobias Ellwood asked us to evacuate the hotel and we did so immediately. The streets were full of shocked people."

Bournemouth East MP Mr Ellwood, 45, said: "I ordered the team out of the building and we stayed until we had more information about the location of the epicentre."

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