A LLYN woman has told how she leapt out of bed and ran to safety during the devastating earthquake which hit New Zealand on Monday.

Teacher and singer Elin Tomos, 27, lives in Blenheim, which is around an hour’s drive from Kaikoura, that saw parts of its roads destroyed leaving thousands stranded when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck.

“It was a pretty big shake at 12.02am. I wasn’t asleep, but I jumped out of bed when I realised that it was a big one. I stood under a door frame for safety, holding on to my dog, who was petrified.

"I waited for a minute or so for the building to stop shaking and then the power went off,” Elin, from Pentreuchaf, near Pwllheli told the Cambrian News.

Elin, a mezzo soprano who sang the national anthem at All Blacks v Wales test matches earlier this year, works for Springlands Primary School. She said her home, which she shares with her fiancée Mark Duggan, luckily managed to escape too much damage.

She said: “We were very lucky, there wasn’t too much damage around here. Everything that was destroyed was superficial, such as vases, glasses and wine bottles. There also wasn’t any damage at the school, but we did have the day off on Monday so they could do earthquake checks to make sure the buildings were safe.

“We’ve now been back at school for two days and, touch wood, we’ve only had one decent aftershock during school hours, where the children were amazing. They naturally did their ‘drop, cover, hold’ procedure.

“It’s a bit frightening as Kaikoura is not a far drive from where I live, and the residents there are stranded with devastating damage.”

Read the full story in today’s Arfon/Dwyfor edition of the Cambrian News