Chesham man survives Chinese earthquake

4:58pm Thursday 15th May 2008

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A CHESHAM man who was part of a tour group that lost some of its members in the Chinese earthquake is safe and well.

John Arnold, 67, was one of 27 members of a tour party who were on Du Juan mountain when the quake struck on Monday afternoon.

Several tour members ignored a guide's advice and went back to the town of Pingwu to get a better phone signal.

Two or three members of the party are now believed to be dead.

But Mr Arnold chose to stay on the mountain with eight others.

His daughter Tracey said: "I think we are very lucky he's still alive and we're lucky he chose to follow the advice, or else he might have been one of the ones that had been killed."

She added: "The earthquake was at half two their time, so he could have under a building if it had been night time."

Mr Arnold's family had been unable to get in touch with him for four days due to communication problems in China following the tremor.

But on Thursday morning Mr Arnold, from Woodley Hill, contacted his daughter Clare in Hong Kong to let her know he was safe.

His relieved wife, Margaret, said: "I'm very glad to know he's well. I did keep wondering what had happened."

Margaret first heard the news of the quake on Monday on the radio while at work.

"It didn't really register at first," she said. "But there wasn't much I could do. My daughter in Hong Kong would be the one who would let us know what was happening.

"We were just getting dribs and drabs.

"But I knew that he was quite capable of looking after himself."