In the Chinese city of Dujiangyan 80km from the epicentre of Monday’s devastating earthquake, stunned residents huddled and cowed under tarpaulins, or in bus shelters in the torrential rain. An elderly couple walked back into an apartment building in which the side had disappeared and the rooms were all exposed.

Amid the chaos on the streets, a steady stream of ambulances drove away from the town towards Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, while soldiers headed towards the epicentre in commercial buses along with heavy moving equipment and police cars.