A FARNHAM woman has spoken about the terrifying moment her family were trapped inside their holiday home in the pitch dark as a 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit Italy in the early hours of Wednesday.

At least 268 people have died and 400 people were injured following the devastating quake and the Italian government declared a state of emergency in the worst hit mountainous regions of central Italy on Friday as hopes of finding more survivors faded.

Cat Lenheim, 30, who lives in central Farnham, was on holiday with her boyfriend Daniel, 34, his parents and sister Lora, and her six-year-old daughter Lily in Amandola - just 45 minutes from the epicentre - when their villa began shaking at around 3.30am on Wednesday.

She told The Herald: “There was an earthquake alarm on the top floor of the villa which sounded about 10 seconds before the house started shaking but I didn’t wake up until the bed started moving.

“Everything was shaking really vigorously and a big full-length mirror fell off the wall and smashed on the floor which was pretty scary. It felt like the earthquake lasted for ages but it was probably only about 20 seconds.

“My boyfriend’s sister grabbed her daughter and everyone was shouting ‘out out out’, but the electricity went out and it was pitch black, so trying to clamber downstairs was really difficult.

“The house had moved so much that we couldn’t open the front doors, that was the scariest part. But we managed to squeeze out of one of the back doors and all rushed outside in our pyjamas in the middle of the night and the freezing cold.

“It was an old building, with big thick stone walls. But as soon as we got outside we could see the villa was quite badly damaged and it wasn’t safe for us to go back in.

“There were big cracks all down the outside walls and the swimming pool was swaying because of the ground moving. It feels like it was all a dream, like a blur.”

The family walked half an hour down a hill to the neighbouring house and were relieved to find it had escaped serious damage. Although they noticed the walls and ceilings had collapsed on some other older homes nearby, fortunately there was nothing to match the devastation in ruined Amatrice - where a family of three from Britain were killed - Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto.

Cat continued: “The neighbours were really welcoming, nice people, and of course we had a cup of tea - we’re British that’s what we do - and then we drove to Rome as soon as it was light and stayed in a hotel for the night.

“There was a couple of tremors there as well though, and there have been over a hundred aftershocks since the main earthquake. You just never know when they’re going to come, that’s the scary thing. You’ll be sitting down and every little movement makes you think ‘oh my god, here we go again’ even if it’s nothing.

“Everyone was a bit shaken up and a few of us had nightmares the night afterwards and the aftershocks were quite scary, so we all decided to fly back home to the UK on Thursday. I’m glad to be home, it’s safe here.”

Cat, her boyfriend and his parents had already been at the villa for 10 days of their two-week holiday when the earthquake struck, but Daniel’s sister and niece had only just joined them for the second week.

They had never visited the mountainous central Italy region before but were attracted by its idyllic scenery and remoteness.

She added: “It’s quite remote but a lot of Italians go there at this time of year for their holidays because it’s cooler in the mountains. The whole area is full of little winding roads and the scenery is absolutely stunning, and the villa was amazing.

“It turned out to be one of the most terrifying experiences of our lives, and I don’t want to go through that again. When you think that dust from the ceiling was falling on our bed, it’s terrifying to think what could have happened. We also saw on the news that a lot of the more historic buildings in the closest town to us came down including a church we had only visited the day before.

“But it hasn’t put us off visiting the country. I was really gutted to leave and it’s still beautiful.”• Anyone from the Farnham area affected by the earthquake can email The Herald at [email protected] or call 01252 899221.