Wellington: At least 65 people were killed and several injured as 6.3 magnitude quake hit New Zealand’s second-biggest city of Christchurch on Tuesday for the second time in five months, toppling buildings, causing “multiple fatalities”, trapping people beneath rubble and sparking fires.
Rescue workers were busy in shifting dead and injured to hospitals while the government has declared an emergency in hospitals in the wake of the deadly earthquake.
Local TV showed bodies being pulled out of rubble strewn around the city centre.Police reported “multiple fatalities” after the 6.3 magnitude quake struck during the busy lunchtime.
It hit at 12:51 pm local time on Monday) at a depth of only 4 km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Web site.
The tremor was centred about 10 km southwest of Christchurch, which had suffered widespread damage during last September’s 7.1 magnitude quake but no deaths.
New Zealand, which sits between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates, records on average more than 14,000 earthquakes a year, of which about 20 would normally top magnitude 5.0.
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