Family forced to flee Italian villa in earthquake drama

Valerie Corfield, 69, from Bishop's Castle, said her daughter Jodie Bridge was in Umbria in Italy with her husband Rob and daughters Freya and Iris when the earthquake hit.

Their villa was 30 miles away from the epicentre. The hardest-hit towns were Amatrice, Accumoli, Arquata del Tronto and Pescara del Tronto, between 60 and 90 miles north-east of Rome.

Mrs Corfield said: "Their villa was wrecked, actually it woke them in the middle of night and they took all the kids out and spent the rest of the night in the garden.

"The men went in the next day and took their belongings out.

"The lady who looked after the villas said there was one that wasn't occupied and it was OK so she moved there and they're still getting aftershocks."

Mrs Corfield's daughter went to college in Bishop's Castle but now lives in Guildford in Surrey. She was on holiday for 10 days and was due back last night.

Mrs Corfield said: "She texted me at 3.18am in the morning but I didn't get until the morning but she texted me when it happened.

"I'd heard on the news so I then texted her saying 'Are you alright?' as she'd sent me some photos and some of walls had huge cracks in and it looked like the door frames were all crooked. "They had to get out in the dark she wasn't quite sure where she was. They were shaken up, Iris thought it was her sister shaking her bed."

Mrs Corfield said her daughter has not seen any villages that have a lot of damage.

She said: "They're experiencing shocks all the time. Yesterday morning they were woken up by aftershocks."

Mrs Corfield is a retired teacher from Long Mynd in Bishop's Castle, and her daughter works as marketing director for Phillips.

Mrs Corfield said she was looking forward to her family coming back.

She said: "I've got the girls for a week as they're still on holiday before they go back to school."