New Zealand remembers earthquake victims

New Zealand held a two minute silence to mark the moment a deadly earthquake shattered the country’s second biggest city Christchurch.

One hundred and fifty five people are confirmed dead but that number is expected to rise to around 240.

Church bells signalled the moment – 12.51 p.m. – when the magnitude 6.3 quake struck, levelling buildings and sending masonry and bricks onto streets filled with lunchtime shoppers and office workers.

In the middle of the central city, which bore the brunt of the quake, politicians, local officials, rescuers and church leaders gathered around a simple memorial of several bricks taken from the worst hit buildings, covered in flowers.

“We gather to reflect on the precious gift of life,” said the Anglican Bishop of Christchurch, Victoria Matthews, whose landmark cathedral was badly damaged and is believed to still have up to 22 bodies inside.

People just stopped. We went outside and lined the street in silence. Danielle Gear, waitress

Rescue workers, who have toiled day and night since the quake looking for survivors, downed tools and briefly stopped work amid the rubble of levelled buildings.

In Christchurch city near the devastated commercial centre, people stood on pavements, beside stopped cars, some holding hands or arm in arm with others, some weeping.

“People just stopped. We went outside and lined the street in silence,” said waitress Danielle Gear at one of few cafes to have reopened near a row of tumbled shops in suburban Merivale.

In the capital Wellington, around 4,000 people gathered outside the parliament, where flags at half mast flapped in a cool breeze under leaden skies.

British taskforce arrives in New Zealand

Members of a British taskforce have started to arrive in Christchurch to help identify the victims of the earthquake.

The disaster victim identification (DVI) team, which includes a pathologist, odontologist and fingerprint expert, will assist experts from New Zealand and Australia.

Four Britons are now thought to have been killed in the 6.3-magnitude quake, and a further three are believed to have been injured.

Police have so far pulled 155 bodies from the wreckage.

The British High Commissioner to New Zealand, Vicki Treadell, has been on the ground in Christchurch assisting nationals.

She said: “With New Zealand and Britain being such close friends, this is an opportunity to support and assist each other at this time of crisis.

“We also have a large consular team on the ground who are providing full consular assistance to any British nationals that require it, and continue to work closely with New Zealand authorities during this difficult time.”

Two members of the DVI taskforce, including team leader Commander Nick Bracken from the Metropolitan Police, landed in the stricken South Island on Monday, with a further eight of their colleagues due to arrive on Wednesday

So far, only one of the British victims’ names has been confirmed.

Gregory Tobin, 25, a chef, from Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, had been on a round-the-world trip and was believed to have been working temporarily at a garage in Christchurch when the devastation struck.

Chartered accountant Phil Coppeard, 41, from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, who emigrated to the country in November with his wife Suzanne Craig, was travelling into town on a bus when the tremors ripped through the city earlier this week. He has been missing ever since.

A multinational team of more than 600 rescuers from New Zealand, the UK, the US, China, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico and Australia has spent the last week days scouring the city for survivors.

No-one has been pulled out alive since the day after the quake, and officials say it is almost certain no-one else will be.