Christchurch quake toll rises to 98
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said police also hold grave fears for around 200 people listed as missing
Hopes have faded of finding more survivors in the collapsed downtown towers of New Zealand's quake-shattered Christchurch, as officials said the death toll rose to 98 with grave fears for more than 200 missing.
Police said up to 120 bodies may still lie trapped in the tangled concrete and steel that was the Canterbury Television or CTV building, where dozens of students from Japan, Thailand, China and other Asian countries were believed buried when an English-language school collapsed along with other offices.
China's state broadcaster said 21 Chinese students are listed as missing following the earthquake.
CCTV says at least eight of the missing are confirmed to be buried in the collapsed Canterbury Television building. CCTV said Thursday a total of 32 Chinese students were registered at the school.
Chinese media earlier reported that one of the trapped students had called her husband in China's Guangdong province after Tuesday's quake hit the southern city of Christchurch.
Prime Minister John Key said there were "grave fears" that many of them did not survive.
"We are very fearful tonight that the death toll could be much greater than any of us have ever feared," Key said, adding that there were dozens of "international people that are caught up in this tremendous tragedy.
Rescue efforts so far had focused on the CTV building and a handful of other major office complexes that crumbled downtown, but work at those sites was shifting to the recovery of bodies while the remaining rescue efforts fanned out further from the center of town.
Key has declared the quake a national disaster, and analysts estimate its cost at up to $12 billion.
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