British honeymoon couple reveal how they woke to find their hotel room violently shaking
Ryan and Sarah Sloan, from Glasgow, were staying 105 miles away from the epicentre of quake
A BRITISH couple on their honeymoon have spoken about the frightening moment Italy's earthquake shook their hotel room.
Ryan and Sarah Sloan, who both work for the same law firm in Glasgow, had been staying in Rome when the quake struck, just a few minutes from the Coliseum.
The epicentre was 105 miles away in Umbria, but they still felt the event which terrified them.
Taking to Twitter he posted: "Most terrifying moment of my life there. Woke up as felt like someone violently rocking bed."
Speaking to the he said: "I was fast asleep when I was woken up with a big jolt. I had no idea what was going on. Then Sarah woke up and we just sat in shock, wondering what was going on."
He wasn't the only Brit to experience the quake - Simona Mani, who lives in York, was visiting family in Acquasparta - she was 60 miles away but still felt the shakes.
She told the : "This was definitely the strongest experience of an earthquake I have ever had, as the epicentre was close to here and near the surface. My parents and I were abruptly awoken when we heard a loud noise and felt the house shake violently. Some objects fell from the walls and we ran outside, as did many neighbours and most of the village.
"Fortunately our home was recently built and resistant to medium earthquakes.'"
Cat Lenheim and her family were trapped in their villa in the dark.
Speaking to she said: "We were in a villa in the mountains and we woke up to really vigorous shaking,’ she told MailOnline.
"The walls were all cracked and a massive full-length mirror fell down off the wall and smashed.
"The power all went, and we couldn’t open the front door from where the building had moved. It was really difficult getting downstairs and out of the building in the pitch black and some of us have bruises on our arms from getting out."
From Farnham Surrey, she was on holiday in Amandola, just 45 minutes from the epicentre.
She added: "Although we couldn’t open the front door at all we managed to get the back door open a bit so that we could slide out,’ she continued.
"Once we got out of the house we stood outside. There was an aftershock about an hour later and a few tremors.
‘Because the building was so damaged we didn’t want to go back inside, so we went to the nearest neighbours who were about a 15 minute walk away and had a cup of tea with them.
"It’s so rural and small, the roads make all the places really difficult to get to.
"Then this morning we packed up all our bags and we’ve travelled to Rome now because the villa wasn’t safe to stay in. We’re staying in a hotel now, just to be safe."
Tourists have been advised by embassies in Rome to avoid the region where the quake happened..
All
The Foreign Office has advised tourists in Italy to check with the Italian authorities for the latest information about the earthquake.
It said in a statement: "If you are in the affected area, you should follow the advice of the local authorities.
"If you are in Italy, Civil Protection have activated a hotline 800840840 for information.'
"At present airports around the affected area - Perugia and Rome - are functioning normally, but the government has requested that the Via Salaria, one of the main roads to the area, be left free of traffic to allow rescue crews to reach the area more easily"