'We don't use the word dead' - Japan goes in where others give up hope

CHRISTCHURCH police commander Dave Lawry was "100 per cent" certain: everyone in the CTV building reduced to rubble in Tuesday's earthquake was dead.

Japan goes

CHRISTCHURCH police operations commander Dave Lawry was "100 per cent" certain: everyone in the Canterbury Television building reduced to a smouldering pile of rubble in Tuesday's earthquake was dead.

"The sad fact is that we're moving the resources we've got to other sites where there is a higher probability of life survivability," he said on Wednesday night.

But that wasn't good enough for the Japanese, with up to 50 of their citizens -- mainly foreign-language students -- entombed in the building.

"At this stage, we don't use the word dead," Takashi Ato, first secretary at the Japanese embassy in Wellington, told The Australian yesterday.

The students' family members began arriving in Christchurch yesterday, Mr Ato said, "and they want to see the fight (for the students' lives) as a matter of course".

Confronted with the New Zealanders' decision to move the search effort to other buildings in the shattered city, the Asian power flexed its diplomatic muscle to ensure its 67-strong team of experienced emergency workers assumed control of the rescue effort at the CTV building.

But, sadly, the grim initial assessment of the New Zealand authorities appears to be realistic. Up to 120 people are believed to have been trapped in the CTV building when it collapsed. Yesterday only bodies were retrieved, some of them Japanese students.

The official death toll from the Christchurch earthquake reached 98 last night, with a further 226 people still missing.

Two babies were named among the dead -- nine-month-old Jayden Harris and five-month-old Baxter Gowland. Baxter was born two weeks after the first earthquake shook Christchurch in September. The second one, technically an aftershock, cost him his life when he was crushed by a television.

Authorities expect the death toll to rise sharply in coming days, as the desperate rescue effort becomes a recovery mission.

"The situation is much worse than we first feared," New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said. "We are very fearful tonight that the death toll could be much greater than any of us have ever feared," he said, adding words of concern for the dozens of "international people that are caught up in this tremendous tragedy".

Mr Ato said yesterday the search would go on for the students trapped in the concrete tomb at the CTV building. "The New Zealand authorities have repeatedly maintained that there is no sign of life at the CTV building, but we hope the students are waiting for us," he said. "That is the main reason we have dispatched the rescue team. That was their announcement, but we would like to make sure of making the best effort possible."

A further 23 bodies were pulled from the CTV building yesterday -- some by Australian rescue teams -- bringing the number of bodies found at the site to 47. Among the 23 bodies retrieved yesterday, several were Japanese students.

It is understood the students were on the bottom floor of the building when it collapsed, and a rescue worker told The Australian it was obvious those on the bottom floor were crushed before they could even try to escape. "It's true, they had no chance," he said.

Last night, Christchurch police superintendent Dave Cliff said authorities had not given up on finding anyone alive at the CTV building, rather they had been forced to prioritise the sites where it was most likely that people could have survived.

"Because of the use of dogs, the camera equipment and the sonic equipment, plus the fact there have been two fires at the CTV site, it was assessed that more pressing locations existed," he said. "It's better to use the resources at that point to look at other locations where people may have survived."

Authorities said up to 22 people were feared to have died inside Christchurch Cathedral, the city's landmark. The search continues for 14 people feared trapped in the Pyne Gould Guinness building.