Christchurch earthquake: families despair as rescue turns to recovery
Hopes that rescuers would find more survivors in the Christchurch rubble have been dashed after police said they feared that up to 100 people had died in the collapsed Canterbury TV office block and that 22 had been crushed under the cathedral's fallen spire.
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Rescue workers surround the Canterbury TV building in Christchurch Photo: GETTY IMAGES
In a blow to families and friends who were holding vigil for their relatives trapped inside the Canterbury TV building in the city centre, police said that reports from early in the day that 15 people had survived and found an air pocket inside the rubble were false.
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Police said the building was "100 per cent non-survivable" because of smoke and diverted rescuers from the smoldering wreckage of the building, which also housed an English language school. There was also "no sign of life" from beneath the rubble at the Cathedral, officers said.
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As John Key, the prime minister, declared a state of emergency, the official death toll from the 6.3 earthquake remained at 75, with 300 people still unaccounted for.
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Mr Key said it was "a time of great agony" for New Zealand.
Vicky Treadall, the British High Commissioner to New Zealand, denied reports that 10 Britons were among the dead, but acknowledged it was likely that Britons had been injured.
