Officials say only a miracle can help find survivors
The official death toll from the earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, rose to 102, with 228 missing, the Civil Defence Minister, John Carter, on Thursday (24).
police chief, Russell Gibson also reported that number may continue to increase, once the teams proceeded recovering bodies from the rubble left by the 6.3 magnitude quake.
Police said the dead were probably some of the people listed as missing, but there can be no confirmation until the information is cross-checked.
Carter said that no more survivors were found.
- The latest rescue with life that was recorded on Wednesday
While he expects the death toll to rise in the coming hours, rescue teams have less and less hope of finding survivors, as they failed to no contact since Wednesday.
'I saw the ground up,' says Brazilian
The authorities acknowledged it would be a "miracle" to find people alive 48 hours after the tragedy, which led the country's government to declare a state of national emergency. During the early hours of Wednesday (23), 500 rescuers were able to free 30 people from the wreckage, according to Police Chief Russell Gibson.
It is believed that between 50 and 100 people are under the rubble of the headquarters of the local broadcaster CTV, including about 20 Japanese exchange students, and journalists and police officers who tried to evacuate the building.
The police consider them dead, which is very dangerous to go ahead with the rescue, but rescue experts sent to Christchurch by Japan and other countries follow in the vicinity of the rubble with trained dogs.
Several bodies were recovered in the last hour, and rescue teams have been moving more to remove the casualties from the wreckage of that finding survivors.
Biggest tragedy in New Zealand
Currently, 80% of the districts of the city lack electricity and potable water. Christchurch Mayor, Bob Parker, said the quake had caused an irreparable destruction in the historic city, full of old colonial buildings collapsed and where the cathedral tower of the 19th century.
The magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurred 5 km from the city and only 4 km deep, six months after another quake, also in Christchurch, 7 degrees, which caused no casualties.
Located in the Pacific ring of fire - the area with high seismic activity and therefore a large number of earthquakes - the New Zealand records up to 15,000 earthquakes per year.
Source R7
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