Updated: 3.07 pm

IT’S BEEN almost five hours since the earthquake struck, but already eyewitness video is making its way onto YouTube. In these videos, the bemusement of tourists and office workers turns to panic as they realise the quake they’re experiencing is much more serious than anticipated.

• A concise ITN round-up featuring some of the most shocking footage

• This aerial footage shown by Sky News shows the first wave, estimated to be over 30 feet high, hitting Japan’s north coast, taking cars and buildings with it.

• Boats are tossed by giant waves off the Japanese coast (no sound).

• “It’s not a 3 right?” Terrified office workers realise that the earthquake they’re experiencing is not the magnitude three they’d been warned about.

• British tourists evacuate an art gallery in Tokyo, as the earthquake strikes.

• This video from Russia Today shows cars and boats being swept along by the tsunami in the aftermath of the earthquake:

• “I’m trying to hold the camera steady but it feels like I’m on a ship” – a witness records swaying buildings in Tokyo half an hour after the earthquake struck.

• This video by AlJazeera television gives some perspective on the terrifying extent of the quake.

• A tourist captures the devastation immediately after the earthquake. Buildings have collapsed and a massive dust cloud is engulfing the streets.

See more like this at Earthquakes Video HQ >

Additional reporting by Andrew Wade