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Residents are reporting bodies lying in the streets of Christchurch following this afternoon's magnitude 6.3 earthquake.
Police said fatalities had been reported at several locations and that two buses had been crushed by falling buildings. Christchurch mayor Bob Parker has declared a state of emergency.
Christchurch resident Jaydn Katene told the Herald: "We've had friends in town call us and say there are just bodies lying around; lots of dead bodies outside shops just lying there just covered in bricks.
"When it hit we were knocked to our feet. Everything in the house fell down, nothing was left still standing. There's more damage than the first earthquake, the roads are completely torn up; sewage coming up and flooding. It's crazy."
GNS Science said today's 12.51pm quake was centred at Lyttelton at a depth of 5km.
It was followed by a 5.7 magnitude aftershock at 1.04pm at a depth of 6km, 10km south of Christchurch.
The latest aftershock measured 5.5 and was the sixth recorded since the 6.3 earthquake. It was also recorded within 5km of Lyttelton at a depth of 5km.
"The elderly are all crying. The next-door neighbours around us were all bawling their eyes out, it was horrible. People can't get out of their houses," said Mr Katene.
"We've seen cars halfway sunken into the road. We've heard there's a bus which is sunken halfway into the road just around the corner.
"Buildings are half-collapsed everywhere.
"It smells horrible. The roads are packed with cars. There aren't enough police or ambulances. Houses are all collapsing. It's pretty shocking; a total warzone."
Christchurch resident Jane Smith, who works in the central city, earlier told the Herald a work colleague had helped with rescue efforts after a building facade collapsed on a bus on Colombo St.
"There's people dead. He was pulling them out of a bus. Colombo St is completely munted," she said.
TV3 reported that a person had died in the Christchurch suburb of Sumner and a body has been carried out of Christchurch's YHA hostel.
The broadcaster showed footage of people being rescued from the Pyne Guinness Gould building, where it is believed some 200 people have been trapped.
It said the Provincial Chambers Building had also collapsed and more people were likely also trapped there.
A listener told Newstalk ZB that the Piko Wholefoods building on Kilmore Street near the city centre, which was hit in the September 4 earthquake, was now "practically non-existent".
Herald reporter Jarrod Booker said Christchurch's historic cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Barbadoes Street had half collapsed, with the remaining part of the building filled with cracks.
The spire on the Christchurch Cathedral has also collapsed.
Christchurch resident Gary Moore told NZPA he and 19 other colleagues were trapped in Christchurch's Forsyth Barr building on Colombo Street.
Mr Moore said workers were stuck on the 12th floor as the stairwell had collapsed. He was not sure if people were trapped on other floors.
'Grave concerns' for Banks Peninsula
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker says he holds grave concerns for the safety of people in Banks Peninsula area following today's massive earthquake and aftershocks.
Christchurch is located immediately north of the peninsula.
"We still have yet to hear any reports in from Banks Peninsula and I'm very very concerned about that," he told Radio New Zealand.
"The centre of the earthquake was in Lyttelton Harbour. There are hills covered in rocks, those rocks would have come down."
Mr Parker said the damage to the city centre was immense and people were trapped in buildings.
"Everybody needs to understand that this is going to be a day of very black news," he said.
Canterbury would need help from the rest of the country.
"There is no doubt that we are going to have a significant number of homeless people in our city," he said.
The region had lost a lot of communication, and water was coming up through the streets from pipes.
He urged people to stay calm despite the extremely difficult circumstances.
Mr Parker said people were very frightened but they needed to keep the roads clear.
"Don't use the phones unless you have to, those phones are also our lifeline."
When the quake struck the mayor was knocked over.
"I looked out over the city once I got up and I could see clouds of dust from buildings collapsing. I could hear screams from streets."
Traffic gridlock
Jarrod Booker said queues of cars could be seen being shaken up and down when the latest aftershock hit.
Mr Booker said cars stuck in the city's gridlock were being rocked side to side and occupants could be heard screaming.
"Even sitting in a car you can feel continual shaking on a smaller scale than the original quake," he earlier said.
Emergency services have been struggling to access the central city and were having to manoeuvre slowly around gridlocked traffic.
Mr Booker said Tuam Street had become a river as water poured from ruptures in the road and was impassable in places.
The whole central city was in gridlock as people tried to evacuate central businesses to check their homes, he said.
Most traffic lights were out and cars were also having to negotiate around hordes of people on foot.
Some pedestrians were standing on the footpaths and staring into space, apparently in shock.
Mr Booker said the southern suburbs appeared to be particularly badly hit.
Liquefaction was forcing tarmac up in the middle of the road and water and sand were spewing out of chasms.
Civil Defence response
Police said all available staff were helping with the rescue operation and the Defence Force had been called in to assist.
Triage centres have been established for the injured at Latimer Square in the central city, Spotlight Mall in Sydenham and Sanitarium in Papanui.
Civil Defence Minister John Carter said all the South Island hospitals apart from Invercargill had been emptied to make way for earthquake victims.
Mr Carter and preparations had been made for a state of emergency to be declared.
He said the number of fatalities and the extent of the damage was still unclear.
Speaking to media at the Beehive's National Crisis Centre, Director of Civil Defence John Hamilton earlier said a response plan was now being put together using all available national resources.
"That includes extra fire people, extra police personnel, assets from the Defence Forces. International offers of assistance are coming through from Australia in particular."
Mr Hamilton said the earthquake was a level three crisis - the highest for a localised event.
Phone lines are down and calls are not being connected to emergency services. Telecom said it is working to understand which services have been affected by the earthquake and get these restored as soon as possible.
Temporary accommodation is being organised for those who have been displaced, with tents possibly to be erected in Hagley Park.
All but emergency flights into Christchurch Airport have been put on hold while it checks the state of its runway.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10708013
Brendan Burns, MP for Christchurch Central: "The situation is pretty desperate"
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NZ city hit by strong aftershocks
New aftershock hits Christchurch
Powerful tremor rattles NZ city
Multiple fatalities have been reported after a powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island, police say.
The tremor, which hit at 1251 (2351 GMT on Monday) only 10km (6.2 miles) south-east of the city at a depth of 5km (3.1 miles), caused widespread destruction.
The fire service said numerous people were trapped in buildings, while the mayor said there was "great confusion".
The damage is said to be far worse than after September's 7.1-magnitude quake.
Two people were seriously injured by the tremor, whose epicentre was further away and deeper. It caused an estimated $3bn in damage.
There have been several aftershocks since last September's quake, with a 4.9 magnitude tremor hitting just after Christmas.
'Very black day'
TV pictures of the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake showed several collapsed buildings in the centre of Christchurch.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
What I can see from where I am in the central city is that there are significant amounts of additional damage”
Bob Parker
Mayor of Christchurch
People could be seen wandering the rubble-filled streets in distress.
Local police said there were reports of multiple fatalities, including that two buses had been crushed by falling buildings.
There were also reports of fires and of numerous people being trapped in collapsed buildings, they added. Witnesses said up to 150 people alone were feared trapped inside the Pyne Gould Guinness building.
Local television showed bodies being pulled out of rubble strewn around the city centre. It was not known if they were alive.
Christchurch Cathedral, an iconic stone building in the centre of the city, was partly destroyed, its spire toppling into the square below.
"I was in the square right outside the cathedral - the whole front has fallen down and there were people running from there - there were people inside as well," John Gurr, a camera technician, told the Reuters news agency. "Colombo Street, the main street, is just a mess."
Radio New Zealand reported that its staff had to cling to their desks during the tremor, and that a church near its offices had collapsed.
Concrete in Victoria Square had risen at least a metre in some places and there are signs of liquefaction around the Avon river, RNZ added.
Residents said this earthquake felt much more powerful than last September's
Power and telephone lines were knocked out, and pipes burst, flooding the streets with water.
There is also a shortage of ambulances, so private vehicles are being used to ferry the injured to triage centres. Initial reports said the main hospital had been evacuated, but this was later denied by the police.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said he was on the top floor of the city council building when the quake hit, throwing him across the room.
"I got down onto the street and there were scenes of great confusion, a lot of very upset people," he said. "What I can see from where I am in the central city is that there are significant amounts of additional damage."
"Make no mistake - this is going to be a very black day for this shaken city," he added.
Christopher Stent said Christchurch's roads were gridlocked with people trying to flee the city as the authorities have instructed.
"The whole house shook... it looks a bit like a bombsite," he told the BBC. "My whole body felt like it was out of control."
Prime Minister John Key told parliament that the reports from Christchurch had spoken of "significant damage".
"The worrying fear, of course, is that this earthquake has taken place at a time when people were going about their business - it is a very populated time, with people at work, children at school. Sadly, I cannot rule out that there have been fatalities."
The military was later called in by the government to assist the rescue effort.
National Civil Defence Controller David Coetzee said "significant" aftershocks should now be expected.
New Zealand lies at the southern end of the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, and above an area of the Earth's crust where the Pacific Plate converges with the Indo-Australian Plate.
The country experiences more than 14,000 earthquakes a year, of which only around 20 have a magnitude in excess of 5.0.
The last fatal earthquake was in 1968, when a 7.1-magnitude tremor killed three people on the South Island's western coast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12533291
