Hunt for NZ quake survivors begins
Dozens dead and many feared trapped, as rescuers in New Zealand work through the night with dogs and earth movers
Rescuers working through the night have pulled dozens of people from the rubble after the earthquake that killed at least 75 people in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The national crisis manager for New Zealand Civil Defence, John Hamilton, said that about 30 survivors had been rescued. Dozens more are still missing, believed to be buried under concrete, brick and twisted metal.
The city's mayor, Bob Parker, said as many as 300 people might be missing as a national state of emergency was declared.
Christchurch hospital's emergency department was packed with victims. Russell Gibson, the night commander of Christchurch police, described the scene in the city as one of "absolute carnage". The streets, he told Radio New Zealand, were "littered with dead bodies".
The 6.3-magnitude quake rocked New Zealand's second largest city at 12.51pm, when streets and shops were packed. Christchurch was hit last September by a 7.1-magnitude quake that caused damage but no deaths. This time, some estimated, the death toll could reach 200.
Already it was the country's worst natural disaster since a 1931 earthquake, measuring 7.8, destroyed much of the North Island city of Napier, killing 256 people.
"There will be deaths, there will be a lot of injuries, there will be a lot of heartbreak in this city," the mayor of Christchurch, Bob Parker, told Australian TV. Hundreds of dazed, crying residents wandered the streets as sirens blared. The quake, centred three miles from the city, was at a relatively shallow depth of 2 miles.
The prime minister, John Key, who flew to Christchurch on an air force plane on Tuesday afternoon, said: "It is just a scene of utter devastation. We may well be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day."
John Gurr, a camera technician, said: "I was in the square right outside the cathedral. The whole front has fallen down."
Pe! ter Ruth erford, a secondary school teacher, was also in Cathedral Square when the spire collapsed. "We were just passing the cathedral when someone picked up Christchurch and shook it quite hard," he told the Guardian. "The spire just twisted and started to fall. I turned and ran, then turned around to see a guy pull a woman out from where the spire fell."
Rutherford had been walking to a meeting with colleagues and they returned through "broken glass and sludge" to Catholic Cathedral College, looking for students as they went. "I was amazed how everyone behaved," he said. "There were a lot of freaked-out people, but no one doing anything stupid."
Daniel Tobin, multimedia editor at the Christchurch Press, was buying lunch when the quake struck. "I ran out of the shop and the building in front of me came down on top of people, and the building beside it came down on top of people."
Tobin ran to collect his camera and filmed the aftermath. His footage has since been viewed around the world.
The Press building itself was hit. "There were people trapped. I think there's still one person trapped," Tobin said. "They were dragging people out all day."
Tobin described a city in shock. "This evening it's dark. There's no power in the streets. There's lots of soil and water on the streets. Lots of the roads are badly damaged."
The impact is of a different order to September's quake, he said. "There's total terror in people's eyes. There's a lot of people leaving town, just to get out of Christchurch. I think people have had enough. We thought it was all over, and we start to rebuild, and then it's a strange feeling of what next, what are we going to do?"
With phonelines disabled through much of the city, New Zealanders took to Facebook, Twitter and blogs to seek information and share their experiences.
The Auckland-based broadcaster Brian Edwards tweeted seeking information about family. Six hours after his first appeal, he tweeted: "Just heard from total stranger on Twitt! er that my daughter and family are OK. He went round to her house for me. Kindness in bad times."
Christchurch Press described a woman killed with her baby in her arms after apparently fleeing a shopping centre. "We tried to pull these big bricks off," a witness told the paper. "She was gone."
All army medical staff have been mobilised, while several hundred troops were helping with the rescue, officials said. Australia sent a Hercules aircraft with 40 rescue specialists and more crews. The British Foreign Office announced that a 62-strong team of emergency workers would arrive in New Zealand on Thursday. The US has also offered assistance.
The toll was much greater than in September for three reasons, according to John Townend, a seismologist based at Victoria University of Wellington. It struck closer to the centre of the city and was four times closer to ground level; the September quake took place in the middle of the night; and structures had been weakened by the September tremor and hundreds of aftershocks. "We were very lucky in September and perhaps a little bit complacent," he told Radio New Zealand.
The Queen said in a message: "My thoughts are with all those who have been affected by this dreadful event."
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