FIFA VICE-PRESIDENT Jack Warner has escaped death in China after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake disaster which claimed the lives of thousands of citizens on Monday.

The Trinidadian parliamentarian, there as a guest of the Asian Football Confederation for its Vision Project tour of China, said in a brief telephone call he "saw death".

Warner described the traumatic experience which occurred during an interval between meetings as he occupied his room on the 31st floor of the Sheraton Hotel in Chengdu.

"I was there dressed just lying on my bed for a couple minutes before going to another meeting and suddenly I felt the room moving left to right . . . . mirrors were falling and I felt as though my room on the 31st floor was almost going down to road level and back up. I heard screams throughout this which lasted for about five minutes. I was dazed . . . . was stunned literally.

"Then it just subsided. I didn't move . . . . I just lay on the bed. Then the phone rang and they told me to just get down. I had to grab my passport and literally run down the staircase to the lobby. At the time, it appeared as though I was one [of] the few persons left in the hotel. I collapsed outside because my knees were out after coming down those stairs," Warner said.

The quake hit about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu – a city of 3.75 million – in the middle of the afternoon when classrooms and office towers were full.

There were several smaller aftershocks, the United States Geological Survey said on its website. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated a hilly region of small cities and towns.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 8 533 people died in Sichuan province and more than 200 others were killed
in three other provinces and the mega-city of Chongqing. It has also been described as China's deadliest since 1976.

"They took us to a nearby football field in which there were thousands of people. We were there for some time before they escorted us to a camp near the hotel and we are here waiting for the airport to [be] reopened. Even today we are feeling after shocks and people are still very much traumatised," Warner said on Monday.

Warner was expected to depart on a private jet owned by Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam to Kuala Lumpur following the reopening of the airport in Chengdu. (Trinidad Express)