Hopes of finding survivors fade

A ‘miracle’ was required to find more survivors amid the wreckage of earthquake-hit Christchurch, Prime Minister John Key said late yesterday, as the focus turned to recovering bodies.

Two days after the 6.3-magnitude quake flattened buildings in New Zealand’s second city, police said there had been no communication with people trapped inside the rubble for 24 hours, reducing the chances of finding survivors.

“We are hopeful that we might find survivors but as time passes hopes fade,” superintendent Russell Gibson told TV3.

Mr Gibson said 50 to 100 people were believed to be missing in one of the most severely damaged buildings, the CTV site, but stressed the numbers were speculative.

Another 20 were feared missing at another site, the PGG building, he said.

With 75 confirmed dead and the toll expected to rise, Key urged people to be realistic about the prospect of finding survivors after the country’s deadliest natural disaster in 80 years.

“That does not mean that there can’t and won’t be people trapped in buildings,” said Mr Key, who has declared a national emergency and described the disaster as possibly New Zealand’s darkest day.“All over the world when we see disasters like this, we see miracle stories of people being pulled out, days and in some cases weeks after the event,” he told TV3.

“We can’t give up hope, but we also need to be realistic.”

Central Christchurch remained cordoned off after Tuesday’s shallow earthquake as emergency crews carefully picked through the rubble of toppled buildings for indications of survivors.

But as the text messages and tapping noises of the hours after the quake diminished, rescuers began to fear the worst and efforts turned to salvaging bodies.

Rescuers had to amputate limbs to free some survivors, but later abandoned hope for any victims in the flattened CTV building, which housed a school for foreign English-language students.

At least 24 Japanese citizens were among the missing there, including 11 students at the college along with a South Korean brother and sister in their early 20s.