New Zealand rescuers refused to give up the hunt for quake survivors yesterday, despite hope fading for hundreds feared trapped two days after a disaster that has killed nearly 100.
Emergency officials gave the grim news that they could find no signs of life in the wreckage of office towers, churches and homes after the magnitude 6.3 tremor laid waste to central Christchurch and some of its suburbs.
“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,” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said.
“That does not mean that there can’t and won’t be people trapped in buildings,” he said. “We can’t give up hope, but we also need to be realistic.”
Police said 98 bodies had been retrieved from the rubble and 226 people were listed as missing.
“We’re gravely concerned about those individuals,” district commander Dave Cliff told reporters.
Rescuers ruled out anyone being found alive at the collapsed Canterbury TV (CTV) building, which housed a TV station and a busy language school for foreign students, and where as many as 120 people may have perished.
They also abandoned hope of finding survivors at Christchurch’s landmark cathedral, which lost its spire and where up to 22 people could be buried.
Police released the first names of quake victims, listing four people including two babies aged five months and nine months.
However, police insisted hundreds of search specialists including foreign teams, with sniffer dogs, purpose-built cameras and listening devices, were still focused on finding survivors, 24 hours after last pulling anyone out alive.
“If people are alive and trapped we’re doing everything humanly possible, with a huge range of people from right around the world,” Cliff said.
He also issued a sharp warning to criminals after about a dozen cases of post-quake looting in Christchurch, saying police patrols would “saturate” the city and its suburbs and strictly enforce a -curfew in the center.
Hundreds crowded Christchurch’s airport, desperate for a flight out of the city of 390,000.
“It’s crazy, nerve-wracking, my nerves are just ... I’ve just been shaking all day, I haven’t eaten,” said Vanessa Burgess, who was camped out at the terminal with her two young children.
Up to 30 quake survivors were rescued on the first night, but only a handful emerged from the wreckage on Wednesday.
Speaking to the Seven Network on her mobile phone, Anne Vos had gripped millions of TV viewers with her account of being trapped in the mangled Pyne Gould office building before she was rescued late on Wednesday.
MISSING TAIWANESE
Meanwhile, a Taiwanese student is still listed as missing in Christchurch, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman James Chang (章計平) said yesterday.
The Taiwanese was among a group of foreign students who were reportedly trapped in the CTV building, according to New Zealand media. Police have said that the building was “not survivable.”
Speaking to the media, Chang said the student remained listed as missing after attempts by Taiwanese officials in Christchurch to make contact with the student via mobile phone failed. The student was also not at home when officials visited the student’s residence.
Chang declined to disclose the identity of the student, citing privacy.
The ministry has been in contact with the student’s family in Taiwan and will provide any assistance if necessary, he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese