Herefordshire earthquake couple safe and well

8:38am Thursday 15th May 2008

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A HEREFORDSHIRE couple feared missing in China have been found safe and well.

The husband and wife, who come from south Herefordshire, contacted a relative to tell them they were safe after spending several days living on a coach.

The unnamed couple were visiting a panda sanctuary in an area of China badly hit by an earthquake earlier this week.

A total of 19 British holidaymakers were missing in the Wolong area after being caught up in the earthquake.

14 of them have now been evacuated to Chengdu where they are safe and well.

They have been visited by the British ambassador and they are being looked after by UK consular officials.

The remaining five tourists are also safe and are expected to be evacuated to Chengdu later.

The Foreign Office said the holidaymakers were on a visit to the Wolong panda reserve in Wenchuan county.

The tourists have been out of touch since the 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck on Monday (May 12).

On Wednesday (May 14), the British ambassador flew to Chengdu to help co-ordinate the search for missing British nationals.