CHRISTCHURCH – Grieving New Zealanders prayed in the earthquake-ravaged city of Christchurch on Sunday as rescuers pulled apart levelled buildings in their desperate search for survivors six days after the devastating tremor that killed 147 people.
Rescue teams from New Zealand and seven countries, including the United States, China, Japan, and Australia, scoured ruined buildings in the central city and suburban areas hardest hit by Tuesday’s 6.3 tremor – but found only the dead. “They can see bodies that they are trying to get out,” police shift commander Russell Gibson said.
The dead include people from 20 nations, including dozens of students from Japan, China and Taiwan who were in Christchurch, one of New Zealand’s most attractive cities, to learn English in view of the country’s dramatic southern Alps. The city’s mayor clung to the hope that more would be found alive, even as aftershocks brought down masonry and sent rescue teams scrambling for safety.
“I will not stop hoping that we will find people alive in the damaged structures of our city until I am told by the police and the urban search and rescue teams that no such optimism can exist any longer,” Bob Parker told reporters.
