It was one of the biggest earthquakes in New Zealand for years - killing two people, damaging hundreds of homes and causing a tsunami up to five metres high.

So World of Warcraft gamer Delrio Sierra can perhaps be forgiven for freaking out while accidentally live-streaming the disaster online.

But despite Sierra's obvious panic his fellow teammates couldn't care less, encouraging him to keep playing, adding: 'No-one cares if you live or die.'

Delrio Sierra, from New Zealand, accidentally live-streamed himself getting caught up in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck yesterday while playing online games

Astonishingly Sierra does attempt to stay at his keyboard, poking his head up from underneath his desk in a desperate bid to keep questing.

But the tremors eventually prove too much and he is literally knocked off his feet, sending him scrambling out the door.

At one point he can be heard checking if his girlfriend is all right, while saying 'f*** this is huge'.

It is not known exactly where the footage was filmed, though it is believed to be in Christchurch.

Meanwhile his friends continue to mercilessly mock his fear, telling him he's making a big deal out of nothing.

Sierra is playing World of Warcraft with his friends when the quake hits, causing him to freak out and fall off his chair while the room shakes around him

Sierra's friends are less than sympathetic, however, ordering him to keep playing - which he tries to do briefly before being knocked off his feet and fleeing out the door

One person can be heard saying: 'It's a f***ing two on the Richter scale, c***. You're crying like my f***ing sister. Shut the f*** up.'

But moments later it starts to dawn on them that something big might actually have happened as they tune into his video feed and notice he's gone from the screen.

Another player remarks the tremors can also be felt in Wellington as Mr Sierra comes back on camera, still shaking with fright.

'Dude, there was a f***ing huge one. F***,' he says.

A few minutes later he returns to his gaming chair visibly shaken, but still his friends show little or no sympathy and accuse him of making a big deal out of nothing

But after a quick google search the group realise something serious has happened, and express a small amount of sympathy for him

'Oh my God. Holy s***.'

Moments later he looks up the strength of the quake before realising it was much more intense than he thought.

While Mr Sierra says 7.5 in the video, the true strength has now been measured at 7.8, followed by a 6.3 aftershock.