Widespread devastation as quake hits New Zealand

New Zealand's second largest city of Christchurch has been devastated by a powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake, with officials saying it’s "extremely lucky" that no one was killed. Two people were seriously injured in the city of 340,000 people.

Reuters

Initial estimates put the damage at up to 1.4 billion dollars as buildings collapsed, gas, water and sewage lines were ruptured, some bridges became impassable and electricity supplies were cut.

The quake struck just before dawn, when few people were on the streets, as building facades crashed to the ground, crushing parked cars and showering the roads with shattered glass.

A state of emergency was declared in Christchurch and a 7pm to 7am curfew imposed in the city centre.

Residents have been warned to stay away from damaged buildings for fear of further collapses as aftershocks continued to rock the city.

In the hours immediately after the quake, roads in the seaside suburbs were packed with cars as residents moved inland, but there was no tsunami.

Civil Defence Minister John Carter described the event as a "significant disaster" and urged people not to panic during the aftershocks.

"I think we've been extremely lucky as a nation that there's been no fatalities... we're blessed actually," Carter said.

Christchurch mayor Bob Parker said he was "horrified by the amount of damage".

He said there was not a house in the city that has not in some way been damaged.

The quake, felt throughout the South Island and the lower North Island, was the most destructive in New Zealand since the 1931 tremor in Hawke's Bay that killed 256 people.

New Zealand sits on the Ring of Fire, the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, and experiences up to 15,000 tremors a year.