A young backpacker caught up in the horrific New Zealand earthquake said it was like being on a film set as buildings buckled and crashed to the ground around her.

Lowenna Brogan, 22, of Knowsley Road, Macclesfield, was walking in the city of Christchurch on South Island when the powerful quake struck.

The former Henbury High School pupil said structures buckled and paths were torn up.

"It was so surreal and just like being in a film; I couldn’t take it all in."

Lowenna, who turns 23 on Monday, had flown to New Zealand 10 days before and had only been in Christchurch a week. She was staying and working at the New Excelsior Backpacker’s Hostel in the heart of the city.

At lunchtime on Tuesday, February 22, the 6.3 magnitude quake began to wreak havoc around her.

She said: "One minute I was standing in Manchester Street near my hostel, and the next the buildings were crumbling around me; just falling like dominoes.

"I watched as the hostel opposite ours fell down and I know that two girls in there did not make it out."

The current death toll is 155 but police fear it could rise to 240. The three-mile deep tremor is believed to be an aftershock from a 7.1 magnitude earthquake which struck in September.

"I was scared out of my mind. When it stopped people started to run back and remove the rubble with their bare hands to try and free others that were trapped."

Lowenna immediately called her mum to tell her she was safe.

"I was frantic and screaming, but mum was great and kept calm and told me to follow any instructions given."

The next day Lowenna, a friend and other tourists were evacuated on military planes to the country’s capital Wellington on North Island where they were taken in by people they had met on their earlier travels in Australia.

Lowenna said: "The Kiwis have been amazing and so kind and helpful to the survivors by giving us shelter, food and clothes. I only had the clothes I was standing in and my mobile phone. But you realise none of that stuff is important; all that matters is getting people out of there safely."

But Lowenna was critical of Britain’s reaction to the disaster.

"The British Consulate has been disgusting. They have provided us with nothing and even charged us £128 for replacement passports that are normally only £77."

She had planned to stay in New Zealand another month before travelling to Thailand in April.

"I will still stay as planned and if it’s safe I would like to go back and help," she said. "I want to repay the Kiwis who have been so kind to us."

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman responded to Lowenna’s criticism and said: "The FCO produces passports on a much smaller scale compared to the Identity and Passports Service (IPS). The IPS is an executive agency of the Home Office. They set fees for British Passports issued in the UK. The IPS issue approximately six million passports each year to British nationals living in the UK, from seven locations.

"The FCO is responsible for providing a passport issuing service to British nationals living abroad. We currently issue fewer than 380,000 passports a year. Although we run an efficient operation, we cannot meet the economies of scale of the IPS. It is Government policy that the cost of consular services overseas should be borne by the beneficiaries of the service and not subsidised by the UK taxpayer.

"We are obliged by the Treasury to recover the full costs in delivering our consular services. The fees are calculated on the basis of the cost of staff, accommodation and overheads involved proportionate to the average time taken worldwide to perform the service.

"The calculations are carefully scrutinised by the Treasury, approved by the Privy Council and laid before Parliament."