Tan and Junn, with their boys Bryce (2nd from left) and Bryan, sharing their experiences of how they escaped from a swaying building. -- PHOTO: THE STAR

On Monday, they dashed down with lightning speed from the 15th floor of a building to the ground floor when the earthquake struck Sichuan province. S'porean and wife scramble 15 floors down during Sichuan quake.

Mr Tan, 46, and his 41-year-old wife were at a massage centre when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit.

'Junn told me something was very odd,' recalled Tan, executive vice president-cum-treasurer of the Chongqing Singapore Club.

'Shortly after, we began to feel the building swaying. We thought it was going to collapse and did not realise it was an earthquake.'

Chengdu, the provincial capital, is located about 100km from the epicentre while the inland port city of Chongqing is situated along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, some 300km from Chengdu.

'When it happened, many at the centre were still wearing towels but had to rush down the stairs to the ground,' Ms Khoo said during an interview in their 13th-floor apartment unit here.

While the couple were in the city centre, their elder son Bryan was in school and younger son Bryce was at home with the helper.

'We were so worried that we kept trying to stop any taxi or car.

'Finally a kind-hearted American who was searching for his local girlfriend sent us home to check on Bryce,' said Mr Tan, who is Chongqing Huaxin International Examination Centre director.

On arriving at their apartment block, they found Bryce and the helper among the crowd that had evacuated the 32-storey building.

'After this, we are really thinking of whether we should be staying so high up,' said Mr Tan.

He said as far as he knew there were no reports of any Singaporeans or Malaysians here or in Chengdu affected by the earthquake.

His club has a membership of about 30 and, according to him, there are fewer than 10 Malaysians living and working here. - The Star/ANN.