NZ quake toll at 76 dead, 238 missing
CHRISTCHURCH: Rescuers broadened their search of collapsed buildings in New Zealand's quake-shattered city of Christchurch on Thursday, as hopes faded of finding any more survivors in the hardest-hit office blocks downtown.
Police said Thursday that up to 120 bodies may still lie trapped in one of those buildings alone, though it was impossible to know the exact numbers caught in the tangled wreckage of concrete and steel that was the Canterbury Television building.
The official death toll from Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude temblor stood at 76, based on the number of bodies that have been recovered from throughout the city and brought to a special morgue, and the missing were listed at 238.
``We know there are more bodies yet to be recovered and we are in the process of doing that,'' police Superintendent Dave Cliff told a news conference Thursday.
Still, he cautioned that the list of missing almost certainly included people who had left town without notifying family or were otherwise all right.
Prime Minister John Key has declared the quake a national disaster and analysts estimate its cost at up to $12 billion.
Hundreds of foreign specialists _ from the U.S., Britain, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan _ arrived in Christchurch to bolster local police and soldiers and allowing teams to head further afield to smaller buildings not yet checked.
``Now we've got the capability of going out and doing searches in areas where there may still be people trapped that hitherto we haven't been able to address,'' Civil Defense Minister John Carters said.
Police superintendent Russell Gibson said that the last survivor had been pulled out at 2 p.m. Wednesday, and no one had been found trapped in the rubble since.
Gibson said the operation had become one of body recovery, though he rejected suggestions that rescuers were abandoning hope of finding anyone alive.
``Yes, we are still looking for survivors,'' he said on National Ra! dio. ``T here are pockets within a number of these buildings and, provided people haven't been crushed, there is no reason to suggest we will not continue to get survivors out of there.''
The rescue effort had been concentrating on two office towers in downtown Christchurch that crumbled to the ground when the temblor struck shortly before 1 p.m., at the height of a busy Tuesday.
At one of them, the Canterbury Television building, police said Tuesday they had given up hope of finding any more survivors and the work going on there was recovery rather than potential rescue. Four mangled bodies were pulled from the rubble overnight Wednesday, Cliff said.
He said that ``between the late 60s and 120 bodies, at the upper limit,'' were still in the building.
Those caught inside include dozens of foreign students at an English language school, and officials have said some Japanese students are among those missing.
The Japanese government said 27 Japanese were missing in the quake zone.
Police said Thursday that up to 120 bodies may still lie trapped in one of those buildings alone, though it was impossible to know the exact numbers caught in the tangled wreckage of concrete and steel that was the Canterbury Television building.
The official death toll from Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude temblor stood at 76, based on the number of bodies that have been recovered from throughout the city and brought to a special morgue, and the missing were listed at 238.
``We know there are more bodies yet to be recovered and we are in the process of doing that,'' police Superintendent Dave Cliff told a news conference Thursday.
Still, he cautioned that the list of missing almost certainly included people who had left town without notifying family or were otherwise all right.
Prime Minister John Key has declared the quake a national disaster and analysts estimate its cost at up to $12 billion.
Hundreds of foreign specialists _ from the U.S., Britain, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan _ arrived in Christchurch to bolster local police and soldiers and allowing teams to head further afield to smaller buildings not yet checked.
``Now we've got the capability of going out and doing searches in areas where there may still be people trapped that hitherto we haven't been able to address,'' Civil Defense Minister John Carters said.
Police superintendent Russell Gibson said that the last survivor had been pulled out at 2 p.m. Wednesday, and no one had been found trapped in the rubble since.
Gibson said the operation had become one of body recovery, though he rejected suggestions that rescuers were abandoning hope of finding anyone alive.
``Yes, we are still looking for survivors,'' he said on National Ra! dio. ``T here are pockets within a number of these buildings and, provided people haven't been crushed, there is no reason to suggest we will not continue to get survivors out of there.''
The rescue effort had been concentrating on two office towers in downtown Christchurch that crumbled to the ground when the temblor struck shortly before 1 p.m., at the height of a busy Tuesday.
At one of them, the Canterbury Television building, police said Tuesday they had given up hope of finding any more survivors and the work going on there was recovery rather than potential rescue. Four mangled bodies were pulled from the rubble overnight Wednesday, Cliff said.
He said that ``between the late 60s and 120 bodies, at the upper limit,'' were still in the building.
Those caught inside include dozens of foreign students at an English language school, and officials have said some Japanese students are among those missing.
The Japanese government said 27 Japanese were missing in the quake zone.
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