earthquake hit 10km southeast of the city, just before 1pm. There have been constant aftershocks, as potent as magnitude 5.7. The latest significant aftershock measured magnitude 5.0 and hit at 7.43pm. Buildings have been destroyed, with an unidentified amount of people trapped inside. Rescuers warn some people will remain trapped overnight. At a press conference after 8.30pm today, Deputy Prime Minister Bill English said Cabinet had made available emergency funds for the recovery operation. The Government was willing to make every effort at the recovery, English said. "Time is now of the essence." English said the shell of death and release of living in Christchurch "is becoming obvious". A great amount of mass were simply too traumatised to get themselves home tonight, he said.TOLL COULD RISE Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker has told TVNZ the last toll could double. It could be tomorrow morning before the number of missing is known. Japanese media are reporting that 23 Japanese students from a foreign-language school are trapped under a collapsed building in the city. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun's online Japanese edition, responses have been heard from nine of the trapped students. The students, from Toyama city, were eating lunch when the earthquake struck. There are reports three of the students have been interpreted to hospital, one in a dangerous condition.DEVASTATING FORCE English said the power of the quake was above the limit modern buildings were intentional to withstand. An estimated 1200 people are in a protection in Addington tonight, while nurses with specialist intensive care skills are being flown to the city. Schools are closed until further notice. Residents have been told to remain at house and preserve any safe water for drinking, including rain water which could be gathered as rain falls tonight as the city's reservoirs have been closed down. Toilets should not be red and water should be boiled as sewage systems have failed, Parker said. "If you're frightened about spending the dark by yourself I totally understand that," Mr Parker said. "Stay at home. Go to your neighbour's house. Do the things you did so good on September 4." He predicted residents would be "very depressed" about the story of destruction that would be revealed tomorrow. "It's not going to be good tidings and we want to steel ourselves. "We are all in this together so you get to be as responsible as the following person. "Get together with your neighbours tonight. Share that passion of human company. "We are in the center of a major disaster on global terms." He said the recovery operation would remain overnight. "We're leaving to get them out in the following few days, but we experience to be realistic. "This is unprecedented." A helpline had been set up for "welfare inquiries". The act is 0800 779 997. Thirty five military personal are on the ground providing first aid and back to the city's most affected areas. Another 250 will come in Christchurch tomorrow to further support. Parker said up to 25 buildings of significant size in the city were probably damaged beyond repair. Hospitals around the South Island were being clear to make the hundreds of casualties expected, while makeshift hospitals were being set up in parts of Christchurch. Emergency triage centres for the injured are operational at Latimer Square, Canterbury University and the Sanitarium Building in Papanui - not South City or the Spotlight Mall, Sydenham, police said. "This is a big problem. Far worse in casualties than the 4th of September, largely because it happened at a different time of the day," Civil Defence director John Hamilton said. "Everybody was at work, it was lunchtime and mass were in the streets and we've got to be realistic about it, but we don't need to go over the top at this stage. I think we've got to be inclined to have that there is leaving to be rather a great toll." Up to 500 people have set up for the dark in Hagley Park, where they will be spending the night. The park had now closed, the Mayor said. He told people instead to go to Addington Raceway or Burnside High School. "It's a day like we never precious to contemplate," he said. The key city business district has been cordoned off and law are warning people to remain away from the areas within Madras, St Asaph, Montreal and Kilmore Streets. People who try to get into the cordoned off areas will be turned away. The suburbs of Lyttleton and New Brighton are reportedly badly hit.SCREAMS FROM COLLAPSED BUILDING Witnesses said screams could be heard approaching from the Pyne Gould Guiness building where lots of mass were feared trapped. A total of mass were also trapped in the iconic Press building in Cathedral Square. Some had managed to rid themselves. People died when buses were crushed under falling building facades, Radio NZ reported. Pyne Gould Corporation has confirmed that staff from the building are missing, but would not say how many. The company was working to describe for each faculty member. At the building's cordon, Labour Party leader Phil Goff said at least 30 people were feared trapped inside and at least one individual was killed. Families were congregating at the cordon, he said. Parker said: "There are people fight for their lives at the second but there are also people fight for them." "We're in the centre of an extremely serious situation. We're preparing ourselves for what I believe will be a very sad, bleak day for our city but be reassured everybody is doing what they can." Parker said there were currently people still trapped in cars and buildings, with some being able to call to say they're trapped. Defence Forces have been called in to help with the earthquake recovery and were going door to door checking on residents. The aerodrome was shut to all but emergency flights and Lyttelton tunnel was shut. Christchurch Hospital remained open but was too damaged. It asked that only seriously injured people get to the emergency department. It had a good emergency plan in operation. Power should fall to half of Christchurch tonight, with most of the city back on in the next 3 to 4 days, lines company Orion said. St John's Ambulance had run out of ambulances and was using four wheel drives to get the injured out. The New Zealand Blood Service has been flooded with calls from people wanting to donate blood. The service said it soon had adequate blood stock, but would advise through its Facebook page and website if that changed.THE RESCUE EFFORT Welfare centres across the city were being set up with one in Hagley Park already, the Civil Defence director said. Police needed to identify victims and notify next of kin. The national crisis management centre was coordinating resources. An Urban Search and Rescue team (SAR) from Australia would come after midnight. Two New Zealand SAR teams were on their way as well as ambulances from about the South Island. The SAR teams would go "hardout" for the first pair of years but it was probable that some people would be stuck in buildings overnight. "There could well be people that are stuck in a building overnight. I would ask that is in all probability the case." Some critical patients had been flown from Christchurch to other hospitals around the South Island. Military force were being coordinated to reach areas safe.CATHEDRAL, HOTELS DAMAGED The steeple of Christchurch Cathedral, the essence of the city, has collapsed. Dean of Cathedral Peter Beck said they tried to get out who they could but it was now in the men of emergency services. "It doesn't feel good". He had "no thought" of how many people were inside. Power was out in a significant share of the city. A substantial amount of hotels have collapsed and it was not known how many people were inside, Civil Defence Minister John Carter said. Bodies were seen being taken out of the damaged YHA hostel in the city. On the tree of Lichfield and High Streets, a bar of shops had completely collapsed and rescue services believed four or five people are trapped in the rubble. One body had been pulled from the wreckage. People trapped in the CBD have put signs up at the windows saying 'HELP'. Helicopters were being used to put out fires in the central city.EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS Amber Armitage said people were wandering around central Christchurch trying to get out but all exits from the city were blocked. There was a potent sense of gas and clouds of dust. A bus on Colombo St was "completely trapped under bricks" and masses were running to free passengers trapped in it. She said the quake felt much stronger than the 7.1 September 4 2010 earthquake and view the metropolis was "irreparable". Former Blenheim woman Joh Bloomberg was running in Ballantynes department store in central Christchurch when the earthquake struck. "I was clinging to this cupboard next to my desk. I view it was release to be fine, but it got worse and worse, and went on for so long. It's the worst one I've felt." She walked outside to nearby Lichfield St and saw a car flattened by a fallen section of building. "I'm normally pretty calm with things like this but when I saw a huge concrete slab on top of that car . "It's squashed down to zero. You never think you'll see anything like that." Everyone was screaming as they remaining the store. A fellow of Miss Bloomberg's walked away to Cashel St mall and saw people lying on the land who she thought had been hit by falling debris from a nearby cafe. Before people were evacuated from the shop to nearby Hagley Park because of a suspected gas leak, 25-year-old Miss Bloomberg said plaster from the store roof was falling and she could see the sky through the roof. She was wait in Hagley Park for her father to gather her and make her home. The earth was very soft underneath, probably from liquefaction, and the Avon River was up extremely high. Traffic in the region was "crazy", she said. Christchurch resident Sean Scanlon said it was by far the biggest shake since the original September 4 quake. The king was out and telephone lines jammed. Kay Cowlishaw said there was destruction everywhere. "There's just water pouring out and sewerage, the whole garage is filled with water. There are cracks in the road. Sally Blundell lives in Opawa and said their whole house shifted on its piles. "We make no water, no power. We are really shaken. Most of us do not love what has happened to the interior city. We are just hearing reports on the wireless and it sounds really frightening. The earth is silent like jelly, a low level shake all the time." Malcolm, a policeman from Darfield, was driving in the city when the earthquake hit. "I thinking I had a flat tyre, then the situation was trembling like hell." He said oak trees in the Hagley Park had been uprooted and fallen across tents. "I'm shaken, I'm at Jesus College now and the schoolhouse is a shambles - there's a lot of wrong to the buildings. "All of the water pipes are fit and it looks like a tsunami coming across the park." "It's just unbelievable - just the absolute power." His daughter was at Rangi Ruru school and she said students were running around screaming. Malcolm's wife Jenny said the mayor was on the radio telling people not to go outside. "It doesn't sound good - it sounds like this time people injured," she said.HOSPITAL INUNDATED WITH WOUNDED St John district commander Tony Dowell said they had been beholding a cast of injuries from good to minor. Mostly of the injuries were from crushing. St John was mobilising resources from West Coast, Dunedin, Nelson and South Canterbury. The National Crisis Center in Auckland had likewise been activated. Dowell said some patients were being sent to other medical centres and 24-hour emergency centres around Christchurch. A patient in Christchurch Hospital, who was in the riverside block when the first quake hit, said things were dropping down and some older people were injured in the stairs. "It was only a lot of panic. The nurses and doctors were quite calm but I remember exactly wish the start time, it was all quiet, then all of a sudden there was panic."FELT More Strongly THAN SEPTEMBER QUAKE Today's 6.3 earthquake would have felt more right for Christchurch residents than the original quake on September 4. GNS duty seismologist Bill Fry said the quickening of today's earthquake was bigger in Christchurch city than the magnitude 7 earthquake last year. "Instantaneously, they would have felt the greatest amount of shaking today. But the duration would not have been as long." The earthquake happened at a shallow depth of 5 to six kilometres below ground. In the city, the acceleration measured the sami as the effect of gravity. In September, the largest acceleration felt about the metropolis was on its eastern side, and this measured 0.8 times the effect of gravity. Today's earthquake did not last as farsighted as the September quake, but Dr Fry said its duration had not been confirmed yet. - Stuff
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