A Newton Abbot woman living in Japan told today of experiencing the earthquake, which hit the country.

Former Decoy Primary School and Torquay Girl's Grammar School pupil Madelaine Fordham, 27, who is an English teacher in the country was with a class when she felt the force of the quake.

'I work near Yokohama in Ofuna, which is about 50km from central Tokyo,' said Madelaine, who has been living in Japan for two years.

'At the time of the quake, I was teaching an English class in Yajima Kindergarten. It didn't take long before we realised the quake was happening.

'After a few seconds, we ran outside with the kindergarten students and teachers into the playground. We all huddled in a group, crouching in the middle of the area as the ground rocked from side to side below us.'

She said that staff acted swiftly getting everyone out of the buildings and into the open.

'We were all trying to be as calm as possible for the children,' she said.

'We had regular updates about the situation on the radio as we waited outside for the numerous aftershocks that followed the initial quake to subside.'

Once that ended, Madelaine had difficulty getting home – public transport had virtually ground to a halt.

Her family in the UK found out she was safe after she managed to contact her boyfriend to say she was Ok.

See next week's Mid-Devon Advertiser series for a more in depth interview.