Christchurch

About three hours another tragic earthquake hit New Zealand (12:51 NZ Time).

This is how the NZ Herald reports it:

There have been "multiple fatalities" after a shallow 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch this afternoon caused buildings to collapse, police have confirmed. Police said fatalities had been reported at several locations and that two buses had been crushed by falling buildings.

Christchurch resident Jane Smith, who works in the central city, told the Herald a work colleague had just returned from helping rescue efforts after a building facade had collapsed on a bus on Colombo St. "There's people dead. He was pulling them out of a bus. Colombo St is completely munted."

TV3 reported that a person had died in the Christchurch suburb of Sumner. Police said there were reports of fires in buildings in the central city and of people being trapped.
Police said all available staff were helping with the rescue operation and the Defence Force had been called in to assist.

Triage centres have been established for the injured at Latimer Square in the central city, Spotlight Mall in Sydenham and Sanitarium in Papanui. A Herald reporter said that emergency services were struggling to enter the central city and were having to manoeuvre slowly around gridlocked traffic.

GNS Science said today's quake was centred at Lyttelton at a depth of 5km at 12.51pm.
GNS said the earthquake would have caused more damage than the original 7.1 earthquake on September 4 because of its shallow depth.

Its data centre manager Kevin Fenaughty said residents said the quake's epicentre was located in the "worst possible location" for the city. "It's a nightmare. A lot of people were just getting back on their feet after the original quake."

Another earthquake of 4.5 struck at 1.21pm (NZ Time), 10 km east of Diamond Harbour.

Please pray for the people of New Zealand.