Christchurch races to rescue trapped quake victims (News Feature)

By dpa correspondents Feb 22, 2011, 9:29 GMT

Wellington - Pip Ramby was on the seventh floor of a building Tuesday when it fell around her.

'There were about 10 of us in the room and no way of really getting out the door,' she told Radio New Zealand. 'When it stopped and one of our number was able to look up, the building was near the ground. We were near the ground.'

The death toll was expected to rise after a devastating magnitude-6.3 earthquake claimed at least 65 lives in Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand on Tuesday around lunchtime.

Authorities feared more than 200 people were still trapped in buildings and many hundreds of injured are being treated in the hospitals and temporary medical centres as the quake destroyed parts of the city and its suburbs.

Anne Voss was trapped in the mangled Pyne Gould Corp Building but managed to telephone Seven television network back home in Australia.

'I was sitting at my desk, and I went under my desk and the ceiling collapsed on top of the desk,' Voss said. 'So I'm sort of squashed underneath. I haven't been able to move really.'

Voss said she could hear co-workers calling out for help but was unable to move.

'I can hear them at times yelling for help, but we're just stuck waiting. It's really hard,' she said.

'I know I'm bleeding and I can feel the ground is quite wet,' she said. 'My hand, I don't know if I've cut it. I don't know what I've done. I can't see.' Seven students and one teacher from Toyama, Japan, were trapped in a collapsed building, reports said. Two pupils and one other teacher had reportedly been rescued, but 12 students were unaccounted for.

About 2,000 people were in emergency shelters as night fell because their homes were destroyed, damaged or unreachable.

The government would not speculate on how many people had been injured or made homeless. The region was still recovering from a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in September, which caused substantial damage, but no deaths.

'We lost our own house in the September quake. We had to move because it was not safe anymore. It was hard on us, and we felt uprooted,' Sabine Cook, a German living in New Zealand for 23 years, told German Press Agency dpa by telephone.

'Now we definitely want to leave Christchurch. Everything is ruined now, even our cathedral!'

Prime Minister John Key said help was en route from overseas and that 250 search-and-rescue specialists were either at work or due on the ground by Wednesday.

Key said he found Christchurch to be 'utterly devastated' after he flew there following an emergency meeting of cabinet ministers.

'We may well be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day,' Key said.

Last year's quake was stronger but with an epicentre 30 kilometres west of the city and at a depth of 33 kilometres. Seismologists said Tuesday's quake had its epicentre very near to the city at a depth of only 5 kilometres, and was therefore far more destructive.

Many were lucky to escape death in September as that quake struck in the early hours of the morning when the city centre was empty.

Tuesday's quake hit at 12:51 pm (2351 Monday GMT) when office buildings and streets were full of people.

Deputy Prime Minister Bill English said the force was so strong that even some modern quake-resistant buildings had not been able to withstand it.

Fifty people were reported to be trapped in one building alone and stories of terror and survival were emerging as aftershocks continued to rock the city.

Tobi Emery told Television New Zealand that he was trapped in a building for six hours and was lucky to escape death - first from the building collapsing on him and afterwards from smoke inhalation as it caught fire.

At least six other people including a baby were in a doctor's waiting room with him when the quake struck. He said he had heard some of them crying for help, but he was unable to reach them.

Many in Christchurch likened the city to a war-zone with rubble everywhere, smoke and dust in the air and flooding due to burst water pipes.

A number of buildings including an historic cathedral were severely damaged and Christchurch airport was closed to all but emergency flights.