Rescuers race against the clock

RESCUERS were searching for any signs of life today after an earthquake devastated one of New Zealand’s largest cities as Prime Minister John Key declared it a national disaster and analysts estimated its cost at up to 12 billion Australian dollars (€8.7bn).

Hundreds of troops, police and emergency workers raced against time and aftershocks which threatened to collapse more buildings in Christchurch. They picked gingerly through the ruins, poking heat-seeking cameras into gaps between tumbles of bricks and sending sniffer dogs over concrete slabs.

Teams rushed in from Australia, the United States, Britain and Japan and elsewhere in Asia, along with a military field hospital and workers to help repair power, water and phone lines which were damaged in all corners of the city of some 350,000 people.