Hope fading for survivors

MORE than 1000 specialist rescuers were working this morning to find survivors from Tuesday's massive Christchurch earthquake.

Hope fading

MORE than 1000 specialist rescuers from around the world were working this morning to find survivors from Tuesday's massive Christchurch earthquake, with early successes giving way to grim assessments that time is running out to find more people alive.

The official death toll last night stood at 75, but leaked official documents broadcast by media suggested authorities feared it could surpass 300 to become New Zealand's worst natural disaster.

Amid confused signals from authorities during the course of the day, including a false statement that a pocket containing 15 survivors had been found, officials called off the search for people in the smouldering Canterbury TV building.

Up to 100 people may have died in the building, including as many as 15 foreign students from Japan. Twenty-two people are thought to have died in the collapse of Christchurch Cathedral.

Emotional scenes erupted when relatives of those in the CTV building were told in the late afternoon there was no chance of finding survivors in the building because gases from a fire would have killed any who survived the initial collapse.

It followed a see-saw of hope and despair as dozens of survivors were pulled from the rubble overnight yesterday, but the number of successful rescues started to diminish, and it was revealed that some of those brought out alive had had to be cut out of the wreckage by amputating limbs.

While still insisting that all would be done to find those still alive, authorities started preparing the community for the likelihood that the chances of doing so were rapidly diminishing.

The head of New Zealand's Civil Defence Department, John Hamilton, said: "We are reasonably pragmatic and understanding from international experience that there's a kind of window of opportunity which may only be open for about two or three days to effect a real rescue of people who have been trapped."

As Australian authorities continued to deploy what is expected to be about 500 rescue specialists, police, medical staff and others to help with the rescue effort, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that one long-term Australian resident, whom she described as "a family man", had been confirmed dead. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd later said fears were held for a further four Australians who were believed to have been in the central business district of Christchurch at the time of the quake.

The city remained largely paralysed yesterday, with only partly restored electricity, continuing aftershocks, shattered water and sewerage pipes, and with a curfew imposed last night in part to prevent looting.

More than 65,000 homes across Christchurch remained without power last night. Five different evacuation centres provided accommodation for several thousand people who were forced to leave their homes in the wake of the lunchtime earthquake, which registered 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Authorities urged people to be aware of health dangers from contaminated drinking water and leaking sewage.

With just four people pulled alive from the wrecked city's rubble yesterday, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key conceded time was running out for those still trapped.

He warned that the final death toll could exceed that of the 1931 Napier earthquake -- the worst national disaster in the country's history -- which claimed 256 lives.

Christchurch Superintendent Dave Cliff said the number of deaths would rise in the coming days. A further 17 people remain in intensive care with life threatening injuries while another 300 are still unaccounted for.

"We need to prepare ourselves for the toll to rise," Superintendent Cliff said.

The disaster is also likely to be the most expensive crisis in New Zealand's history. JP Morgan Chase yesterday estimated the cost of the rebuild at about $US12 billion, or $NZ16bn.

Questions arose over whether officials were telling all they knew about how many people were thought to be alive or dead in each of several sites where crews have looked for survivors.

While officials said they did not have numbers available, a leaked document broadcast by Sky News New Zealand listed specific numbers compiled by officials of those pulled out alive, those pulled out dead, and those thought to still be alive or dead in each of seven buildings where people were trapped.

As several aftershocks continued to rock Christchurch yesterday, the city's tallest structure -- the 26-storey Grand Chancellor Hotel -- was threatening to collapse. "It's started to move on its columns," a hotel spokesman said. "It's moved one-metre horizontally, and it's started to sink."

A four-block no-go zone was put in place around the hotel

"A domino effect of falling buildings in the CBD would be an absolute disaster," Superintendent Cliff said.

Very few buildings in the Christchurch CBD escaped damage in the earthquake. Several 19th century churches were completely destroyed.

Police were also patrolling the CBD last night after six men were arrested for looting city stores. A dense smell of smoke remained across the city's streets, which were eerily quiet.

Initial hopes that people still trapped under flattened buildings in the CBD may be found alive quickly evaporated yesterday.

Outside the CTV building, one woman, Julie Berg, was waiting and hoping for her daughter to come out alive, and had been ringing and texting her daughter's phone in a bid to help rescuers.

"I thought the rescuers might hear the ring and dig down and find her," Ms Berg said.

Another man, Aaron, was distraught at the abandoning of the rescue effort at the CTV building. He said he wanted to bring his own dog to assist with the rescue because his dog would be able to smell his mum's familiar scent.

Nearby, two women and one man were pulled from the rubble of the Pyne Gould building yesterday, but dozens of people are still thought to be trapped.

As thousands of people fled the city yesterday, Mr Key reassured the people of Christchurch that the whole country was behind them in their hour of need. "We will get through this," he said.

One witness, Tom Brittenden, yesterday told of how he saw a woman die with her baby in her arms when she was hit by falling debris in the city's Cashel Street Mall. He said the woman appeared to have run from a shop in panic when the quake hit. Her baby survived but she was killed instantly.

"We tried to pull these big bricks off (her) . . . she was gone," he told the Christchurch Press.

Additional reporting: Ean Higgins