Christchurch quake victims rescued from the rubble
About 300 people remain missing as search efforts in New Zealand continue in the aftermath of Tuesday's powerful earthquake in Christchurch.
At least 75 people are known to have died, with the death toll expected to rise significantly, officials say.
Meanwhile, hundreds of foreign rescue workers are arriving to join the search effort, amid warnings that time is running out for survivors.
The 6.3 magnitude quake is the country's biggest disaster in 80 years.
Authorities are working through the night to find survivors in an effort which has been hampered by aftershocks.
Rescue work at one building, housing a TV network and a foreign language school, was called off as officials said there were no signs of life.
And the city's tallest hotel and surrounding area was cordoned off as rescue officials feared the hotel could fall on top of them.
The director of New Zealand's Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, John Hamilton, has said rescuers have only a window of two or three days to find people.
For a second night rescue teams in Christchurch are continuing their painstaking search for those lost in the wreckage.
There have been moments of exhilaration when survivors have been pulled from office blocks that have been utterly shattered.
Emergency workers concede, though, that it's likely their grim task will soon begin to reveal more bodies.
Relatives of the missing have been threatened with arrest if they breach a cordon set up to keep the public away from unstable buildings in the centre of Christchurch.
More than 36 hours after the earthquake struck, more details are emerging of what the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has called a "ruthless act of nature".
One woman died instantly with her baby in her arms when she was struck by falling debris. Somehow the child survived. It is a remarkable escape that has boosted the spirits of a beleaguered city.
The New Zealand Prime Minster, John Key, has declared a national state of emergency and authorities have imposed a curfew.
Mr Key said the quake had "wreaked death and destruction on a dreadful scale" in the country's second biggest city, six months after a 7.0-magnitude quake hit Christchurch causing much less damage.
Rescue teams have arrived from Australia, Asia, the US and Britain.
Military field hospital teams are meanwhile helping repair power, water and phone lines damaged across the city.
About 120 people have been pulled out of collapsed buildings, with rescuers having to perform amputations on some victims to get them out.
Christchurch's main hospital was inundated with people suffering head and chest injuries, a spokesperson said.
One foreign student, 19-year-old Kento Okuda from Japan, had his leg cut off to allow his rescue from the Canterbury Television (CTV) building.
"As we were eating lunch, there was a major shaking, and suddenly the floor fell," he told Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
"Everyone around me was saying things like 'It hurts' as they fell downward," he said.
"And then I realised I was in total darkness, with my right leg pinned by something so I couldn't move."
At the Pyne Gould Guinness building, cheers were heard on Wednesday as office worker Ann Bodkin was pulled out alive after being trapped for more than 24 hours, and reunited with her waiting husband.
Friends and relatives mourned for their loved ones after search efforts were stopped at the CTV building.
Officials said they did not think anyone else was beneath the rubble, and had to divert their resources elsewhere.
Emergency shelters have been set up and schools have been closed until buildings are assessed for risk.
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Streets in the north-eastern suburb of Bexley were flooded as the quake caused water mains to burst, which coincided with heavy rain.
The multi-storey Pyne Gould Guinness Building, which normally houses around 200 workers, collapsed. A number of people were thought to be trapped inside.
The 63m spire of the city's Anglican cathedral was toppled by the earthquake. A New Zealand TV reporter took a look inside the damaged building.
Much of the city centre was badly damaged, including these buildings on Manchester Street. The quake struck in the middle of the day when many people were out and about.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, Rhys Taylor took this video on Oxford Terrace, 50 metres away from the city's main hospital. He said: "Cars were being used as ambulances to transport the injured."
Analysts have estimated the total cost of damage at about $12bn (£7.4bn), according to the Associated Press news agency.
About 80% of people in the city of about 350,000 are without water, reports the New Zealand Herald.
The earthquake struck at a shallow depth of 5km (3.1 miles) on Tuesday at 1251 local time (2351 GMT on Monday), when the South Island city was at its busiest.
It was Christchurch's second major tremor in five months, and New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster in 80 years.
New Zealand experiences more than 14,000 earthquakes a year, of which only around 20 have a magnitude greater than 5.0.
Tuesday's was the country's worst natural disaster since a 1931 quake in Hawke's Bay on the North Island killed 256 people.
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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-asia-pacific-12555890
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