[img width= height=]http://www.number10.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/New-Zealand-Earthquake-474-300x254.jpg[/img]
(AP)
Updated 12:16 a.m. EST
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - A powerful earthquake struck New Zealand's already-bruised city of Christchurch on Tuesday, collapsing buildings, burying vehicles under debris and sending rescuers scrambling to help trapped people amid reports of multiple deaths.
The 6.3-magnitude quake hit the country's second-biggest city on a busy weekday afternoon and closer
to downtown than a major quake that damaged Christchurch last September but caused no deaths
when it struck before dawn on a weekend.
Police said there were reports of multiple fatalities from the latest temblor in the city of 350,000,
while Prime Minister John Key told Parliament it was still too soon to confirm the deaths.
The quake destroyed the spire of the iconic stone Christchurch Cathedral, which toppled into a central city square,
and police said there was a report of two buses crushed under falling buildings.
Video footage showed some multistorey buildings collapsed in on themselves, and others with walls that had collapsed
into the streets, strewn with bricks and shattered concrete.
Sidewalks and roads were cracked and split, and thousands of dazed, screaming and crying residents wandered
through the streets as sirens blared. Groups of people helped victims clutching bleeding
wounds, and others were carried to private vehicles in makeshift stretchers fashioned from rugs or bits of debris.
The airport was closed, and Christchurch Hospital was briefly evacuated before it was deemed safe and patients were returned.
Power and telephone lines were knocked out, and pipes burst, flooding the streets with water.
Some cars parked on the street were buried under rubble.
Some people were stuck in office towers and firefighters climbed extension ladders to pluck people trapped on roofs to safety.
A crane lifted a team of rescuers on a platform to one group of survivors in a high rise.
Plumes of gray smoke drifted into the air at several points around the city from fires burning in the rubble.
A search and rescue team was being flown in from Australia to help in the recovery.
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=38147.0
Topic: New Zealand earthquake magnitude 6.3 hits Christchurch (Read 1623 times)