CHRISTCHURCH – A powerful earthquake killed at least 65 people in New Zealand’s second city Christchurch on Tuesday, crushing buildings and vehicles and leaving hundreds trapped and screaming for help. “We may be witnessing New Zealand’s darkest day,” Prime Minister John Key said after the 6.3-magnitude quake pummelled the city, just six months after buildings were weakened by a 7.0 quake that claimed no victims.
“People are just sitting on the side of the road, their heads in their hands. This is a community that is absolutely in agony,” Key said, warning that the toll was likely to rise. New Zealand’s deadliest tremor in 80 years struck as city streets were packed with lunchtime shoppers, and turned central Christchurch into a rubble-strewn disaster zone littered with dazed and bleeding residents.
The city’s iconic cathedral lost its spire, and the six-storey Canterbury TV building was reduced to a smoking ruin. Rescue helicopters plucked survivors to safety from the rooftops of buildings where staircases had collapsed, and emergency workers used giant cranes to pull office workers out of ruined city buildings. Media reports quoted Christchurch’s mayor Bob Parker as saying that up to 200 people may still be trapped inside ruined buildings.
Police drafted in urban search and rescue teams in an urgent attempt to locate survivors. Local station TV3 said dead bodies had been pulled from a hostel and a bookshop, and that a tourist was crushed to death in a van. All flights in the country were briefly suspended after a Christchurch control tower was damaged. Power was cut to thousands of residents, mobile phone networks were disrupted and road and rail transport was badly hit after the violent tremor, which tore gaping fissures in asphalt.
Water mains were also burst, unleashing a torrent of water that joined with heavy rains to inundate the suburb of Bexley and cause surface flooding in other areas of the city. Video footage showed a landslide crushing a small building, while passersby fled for their lives from underneath a collapsing awning. Several strong aftershocks pummelled the stricken city.
“This is about as bad as it gets,” said Parker, who declared a five-day state of emergency and said emergency crews would work through the night to reach the dozens of trapped people. “What the picture will be in the morning, God only knows,” he added.
