Among those unfortunate enough to have been caught up in the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand is our dear friend Piers Lane, the ace Australian pianist, who was about to give a concert there. The normally unflappable Piers found himself awoken at 4.34am by what felt at first like a massage bed, but rapidly turned into the realisation that he had to get out of the hotel, fast.

"Terrifying," he reports on Facebook. "Fled down from the tenth floor of the hotel, cutting my foot on glass in the process." (The minibar doors all flew open and the bottles smashed, hence broken glass everywhere.) Several of the aftershocks have been scary too and we're told to expect a big one, just one degree lower than the original." True to ever-positive form, though, he adds: "The weather today is, however, glorious!"

His concert on Monday has been cancelled and the hall is closed until further notice. The Doric Quartet, who were due to join him, are fortuitously stuck in Sydney.

Australia's Courier Mail has more here.