(22 Feb 2011)
1. Wide aerial of Christchurch
2. Various aerials of earthquake damaged buildings
3. Various aerials of rubble and damaged buildings
4. Aerial of destroyed house on hill side
5. Aerial of damaged roads
6. Aerial of cars in floodwater caused by burst pipes and rain, zoom out
7. Aerial of army vehicles in street
STORYLINE:
A powerful earthquake struck one of New Zealand's biggest cities on Tuesday at the height of a busy workday, toppling tall buildings and churches, crushing buses and killing at least 65 people in one of the country's worst natural disasters.
It was the second major quake to hit Christchurch, a city of 350,000, in five months, though Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude temblor caused far more destruction than a more powerful September quake that struck before dawn on a weekend.
An unknown number of people, including a dozen visiting Japanese students, were feared trapped in the rubble.
The spire of the city's well-known stone cathedral toppled into a central square, while aerial footage showed multistory buildings collapsed in on themselves, and others with walls that had fallen into streets strewn with bricks and shattered concrete.
Pavements and roads were cracked and split, while thousands of dazed, screaming and crying residents wandered through the streets as sirens blared.
Groups of people helped victims clutching bleedings wounds, and others were carried to private vehicles in makeshift stretchers fashioned from rugs or bits of debris.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency and ordered people to evacuate the city centre.
Troops were deployed to help people get out and to throw up a security cordon around the stricken area, according to Deputy Prime Minister Bill English.
The airport was closed, and Christchurch Hospital was briefly evacuated before it was deemed safe and patients were returned.
Power and telephone lines were knocked out, and pipes burst, flooding the streets with water.
Some cars parked on the street were buried under rubble.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor was centered 3 miles (5 kilometres) from the city at a depth of 2.5 miles (4 kilometres).
Two large aftershocks - one magnitude 5.6 and another 5.5 - hit the city within two hours, and officials warned people to stay away from damaged buildings because of the danger of further collapses.
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