Rescuers scramble to rescue New Zealand earthquake victims

Rescuers used their bare hands, dogs, and heavy machines in an urgent search for survivors still trapped in collapsed buildings more than 24 hours after an earthquake devastated one of New Zealand's largest cities.

The confirmed death toll from yesterday's magnitude-6.3 quake centred near Christchurch rose to 75, and officials said it was almost sure to climb further.

Some 300 people were listed as missing.

Prime Minister John Key declared a national state of emergency as hundreds of soldiers, police and other emergency workers - including specialist teams from the US and other countries - rushed to Christchurch.

Parts of the city of 350,000 people lay in ruins, and all corners of it were suffering cuts to water supplies, power and phones.

The city was virtually shut down today, with officials urging residents to stay inside their homes.

The immediate focus was on about a dozen town centre buildings where finding survivors was still a possibility.

In other places, rubble was being left untouched - even if bodies were thought buried there - until the urgency of the survivor search passes.

Near the smouldering remains of the Canterbury Television building, brother and sister Kent and Lizzy Manning sat on a rain-sodden patch of grass waiting for news of their mother, Donna, a television presenter who they had not heard from since the quake.

"My mum is superwoman, she'd do anything," said Lizzy Manning, 18, with tears running down her face.

At that moment, a police official knelt down beside the pair.

"I have some horrible news ...," the officer began, before telling the siblings that there was no hope for anyone left trapped inside the building.

The siblings bowed their heads and wept. Their father rushed over and enclosed them in an embrace.

Officials pointed thermal cameras into the wreckage, and sniffer dogs clambered on top looking for signs of life.

Officials at one point said they believed they had found a pocket of at least 15 people buried alive in one building - but the report turned out to be false.

Mayor Bob Parker said early today that 120 people were rescued from wrecked buildings as teams worked through the night, while more bodies were also recovered.

About 300 people were still unaccounted for, but this did not mean they were all still trapped, he said.

Some survivors emerged without a scratch, while others had to have a limb amputated before they could be freed.

"There are bodies littering the streets, they are trapped in cars, crushed under rubble and where they are clearly deceased our focus ... has turned to the living," police Supt Russell Gibson said.

Military units patrolled near-empty streets disfigured by the huge cracks and canyons created in yesterday's earthquake, the second powerful quake to hit the city in five months.

The quake toppled the spire of the city's historic stone cathedral and flattened tall buildings.

Mr Parker said an unknown number of people, possibly 20 or more, were believed to have been inside the cathedral tower - climbing it was a popular activity for tourists.

The quake struck just before 1pm local time, when the city was thronging with workers, tourists, and shoppers.

The quake was not as powerful as a magnitude 7.1 tremor that struck before dawn on September 4 that damaged buildings but killed no one.

Experts said yesterday's quake was deadlier because it was closer to the city and because more people were about.

Shopping centre worker Tom Brittenden told of how he had helped pull victims from the rubble in the immediate aftermath of the quake, including a woman who died cradling her baby in her arms.

"There was a lady outside we tried to free with a child," Mr Brittenden told National Radio. "A big bit of concrete or brick had fallen on her and she was holding her child. She was gone. The baby was taken away."

Christchurch's airport reopened for domestic flights today, and military planes were brought in to fly tourists to other cities.

Thousands of people in the city, including tourists who had abandoned their hotels, spent the night in temporary shelters at schools and community halls.

The town centre was cordoned off to keep people away from wobbly buildings and to give free-rein to rescue workers and maintenance crews.

Officials urged residents elsewhere to stay off the streets unless their journeys were absolutely necessary. All schools in the city were closed until further notice.

Denis Torrey, president of the city's junior school principals' association, said there were no reports of students or teachers being harmed in the quake, though some schools were badly shaken.

"It was very scary, there were some staff thrown to the ground," she told National Radio.

"The teachers very calmly gathered children into groups. There were lots of group hugs and lots of comforting going on."

During the emergency, teachers took roll calls and kept track of students as frantic parents rushed to reach them.

More than 400 rescue workers were joining the search, including teams from Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, the United States and Britain.

New Zealand's worst earthquake struck in 1931 at Hawke's Bay on the country's North Island, killing at least 256 people.

Rescuers pulled a woman from the rubble of New Zealand's devastating earthquake more than 24 hours after she was trapped.

Cheers broke out as office worker Ann Bodkin was pulled free from the pile of twisted metal and shattered concrete that had been the PGG building in the city of Christchurch.

Mr Parker said Ms Bodkin was quickly reunited with her husband, who was anxiously watching the painstaking rescue.

Police announced a night-time curfew in parts of Christchurch that were devastated by an earthquake.

Supt Dave Cliff told reporters that anyone found on the streets in a cordoned-off area of the town centre after 6.30pm local time would be arrested.

He said the area was too dangerous because buildings weakened by yesterday's quake could by toppled by aftershocks still rumbling through the city.

Supt Cliff did not say what time the curfew would be lifted.