AN Ashton on Mersey man has spoken of the horror he felt at being in Tokyo when a massive earthquake struck.

Simon Massey, a cabin crew member for an airline company, had been in the Japanese capital for a couple of days of a scheduled four day stopover, when the country was hit by one of the biggest earthquakes in history last Friday afternoon.

Simon, aged 36, had just been in a cafe and was walking across a square when the earth began to shake, and it continued to do so for several minutes.

He said: “It was very scary. The earth shook and you are thinking when is it going to stop.

“I was afraid of something falling on me and so moved into the middle of the square.

“There were people screaming, the street lights were shaking and and there was a rumbling noise.

“I saw that half the side of the cafe I had just left had collapsed and the sign above it had fallen.”

Simon returned to his eighth floor hotel room after the quake stopped but then, after a second quake, the hotel was evacuated.

With other cabin crew members, he found a cafe that was still open and they sat there “while the whole earth shook for hours”, until they were able to return to the hotel.

Simon and his colleagues were able to fly out of Tokyo on Monday, two days later than planned.

He said: “It was a relief to leave. Even when I was coming home the earth was shaking - it was rocking.”

The death toll from the earthqauke and tsunami that followed it had topped 2,400 as Messenger went to press, and was expected to rise to more than 10,000.

*Simon will run in the Great Manchester Run on May 15 to raise funds for the Red Cross. To support his efforts go to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Simonsappeal4japanrun