mudpuppy
Senior Airman
A report from Reuters is below. My prayers go out to those folks, the pictures of the disaster are frightening:
(Reuters) - A strong earthquake killed at least 65 people in New Zealand's second-biggest city of Christchurch on Tuesday, with more casualties expected as rescuers worked into the night to find scores of people trapped inside collapsed buildings.
It was the second quake to hit the city of almost 400,000 people in five months, and New Zealand's most deadly natural disaster for 80 years.
"We may well be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day...The death toll I have at the moment is 65 and that may rise," said New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who had flown to his home town of Christchurch, where he still has family.
The 6.3 magnitude quake struck at lunchtime, when streets and shops thronged with people and offices were still occupied.
Rescuers, working under lights in rain, focused on two collapsed buildings: a financial-services office block whose four stories pancaked on top of each other, and a TV building which also housed an English-language school.
Twelve Japanese students at the school were believed to be missing, an official in Japan told Reuters.
Trapped survivors could be heard shouting out to rescuers from the TV building. Local media say as many as a dozen or more people could still be inside. Relatives of those feared trapped kept a vigil outside the building as rain began to fall.
A woman freed from a collapsed building said she had waited for six hours for rescuers to reach her after the quake, which was followed by at least 20 aftershocks.
"I thought the best place was under the desk but the ceiling collapsed on top, I can't move and I'm just terrified," office worker Anne Voss told TV3 news by mobile phone.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker described the city, a historic tourist town popular with overseas students, as a war zone. He told local radio that up to 200 could be trapped in buildings but later revised that estimate down to around 100 or so.
"It is a tragedy that is unbelievable," he said.
It was the country's worst natural disaster since a 1931 quake in the North Island city of Napier which killed 256. Christchurch Hospital saw an influx of injured residents.
"They are largely crushes and cuts types of injuries and chest pain as well," said David Meates, head of the Canterbury Health Board. Some of the more seriously injured could be evacuated to other cities, he added.
