The building around me began to sway as I sat at my desk working. At first it was gentle, but then it grew more violent. I ran to the bathroom and threw myself on the floor. Dust and plaster from the ceiling began to fall around me as the quake continued. Fearing the building would collapse, I made the decision to move. Keeping down on the floor I got myself under the desk, where I stayed until the movement stopped.

I immediately grabbed my bag and headed for an exit. Moving down the stairs from the third floor, I made my way through dust and debris to the front door and out onto the street. Initially there was an eerie calm before people began to cautiously emerge, dust filling the streets.

Just a few doors down from the building where I had been staying, a hospital stood – relatively undamaged, its staff out on the street fearing collapse. Within minutes, injured people began to arrive – in cars, taxis, on foot, being carried by others.

It was immediately clear that there had been casualties. The lifeless bodies of two young children were carried in; countless others arrived with a variety of horrific injuries – many having been hurt by falling masonry, others having been pulled from collapsed buildings…

Nicholas Roxburgh is a PhD student from Ormskirk, Lancashire, studying rural water system management in Nepal. Christian Aid is part of the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Nepal Earthquake Appeal and is providing urgent relief to victims of the earthquake. To find out more, visit www.christianaid.org.uk/nepal

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This is an extract from the June 2015 edition of Reform.