A DOCTOR who volunteered to treat victims in Nepal has spoken of how he feared for his life after getting caught near the epicentre of a second earthquake.

Dr Muhammad Shafiq was treating patients in a remote mountain village when he was forced to jump out of a building seconds before it collapsed.

The GP, who is based at the specialist skin service at the One Life Centre in Middlesbrough, was spending a week in Nepal to provide medical aid following the first devastating tremor on April 25, which killed about 8,500 people.

Dr Shafiq had been treating up to 90 patients a day for injuries, infections and malnutrition as well as handing out tents and rice bags to those who had been left with nothing as part of a team of five doctors who flew out to work a local charity called Lion Club.

“When we arrived we realised there was a lot to be done,” said Dr Shafiq who collected £3,000 in donations before he flew out. “People needed medical relief as well as food and shelter.

“After a couple of days we left our hotel base in Kathmandu and went to a remote village called Dhuskun in the Sindhupalchowk district. It took us seven hours to get there and we had to walk half of the journey because the road was damaged from the earthquake.

“We managed to see about 250 patients that day and we were about to leave when the second earthquake hit. It sounded like there was a helicopter flying overhead and then the ground starting shaking."

The doctor described how he and his colleagues jumped out of the room, adding: “We were struggling to stand up because the ground was moving that much. The mountains were swaying.

“We were all running for our lives. We were just running down the hill trying to keep away from the building. It was a very frightening experience.

“We were seeing houses falling down in front of our eyes and the sky was full of dust - that will stick in my mind forever.

“The earthquake measured 7.3 on the Richter scale and lasted about one minute, but it was the longest minute of my life. The room we had been in had fallen down and it was frightening to think that a few seconds earlier we were stood in there.”

Dr Shafiq said the experience has not put him off doing more medical relief work in the future.

“I feel very pleased that we helped a lot of people,” he said.

“The people in Nepal are so poor but nobody complains and everybody is very welcoming. It makes you realise how lucky you are.”