Philip and Linna Greening-Jackson, formerly of Carlton Road, survived the terrifying quake which shook south-western China at about 2.30pm local time on Monday.

The tremors, which reached 7.6 on the Richter scale, rippled across the south-western province of Sichuan, claiming the lives of at least 15,000 people.

The pair, who are both trained accountants, were teaching in a school in Duijiangyan – just outside of the provincial capital of Chengdu - when the first movements of the quake struck.

Speaking to Philip's mum, Shirley, 75, of Alderson Road, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, they described their terrifying ordeal as everything around them started to move.

"We were on the second floor of the school when the building started to shake. It was really frightening and we didn't know what was happening," said Philip, 53, and his 30-year-old wife.

In several frantically written emails to his mum, Philip has spoken further of the magnitude of the disaster and pleaded for help from Bassetlaw MP John Mann – who says he is on the case.

"There are thousands dead in Dujiangyan. A complete school and a hospital have been crushed. Rubble everywhere. About as bad as it could be but we are OK."

Reassuring his mum that he and Linna will be fine, he said: "I will survive and she is tougher than me."

Philip – who is a former territorial army officer – is trying to keep everyone safe and well despite the lack of water supplies. They are currently boiling rainwater to survive.

He and the other teachers have dragged some judo mats out of the school gym and prepared a place for the kids to stay safe.

On first hearing about the quake, Shirley and their family were frantic to hear news of the pair, but with the phone lines down and no electricity they couldn't get in touch.

"When I got the call from them, it was 3am but I wasn't asleep. I was absolutely overjoyed to hear his voice and know that they were safe," she said.

They could only talk for several minutes as they were using an emergency phone line that one of the other teachers had rigged up.

Another call came to Shirley on Wednesday from the mother of one of Philip's Chinese students.

"My heart stopped when I heard she was calling about Philip. I thought she was going to say he'd been hurt after all," she said.

"But she was calling to thank Philip for looking after their son. They said he had been wonderful in organising everything there."

"He's always been really good with survival and the outdoors and was a boy scout when he was younger.