Christchurch rocked via earthquake

AFTERSHOCKS have rattled Christchurch in the wake of a 5.7-magnitude quake that shook the metropolis almost five years on from the devastating tremor that killed 185 human beings and triggered substantial destruction.

a number of small shakes saved citizens on part thru the night after Sunday’s shallow quake.

The earthquake struck rapidly after 1pm on Sunday (11am AEDT) and became to begin with pronounced as five.nine magnitude through GeoNet.

A cliff collapsed into the ocean close to Taylors Mistake, with five young lifesavers narrowly heading off injury, inventory fell from shelves and shoppers have been compelled to flee malls.

No severe accidents had been pronounced and there were simplest minor troubles with the metropolis’s infrastructure.

the dangerous quake got here only a day after prime Minister John Key visited the town he grew up in to highlight rejuvenation from devastating quakes 5 years ago. Key said the buildings in the town are an awful lot more potent than they have been 5 years in the past and by means of all debts had come through the quake nicely.

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency management is activating in reaction in Wellington and St John ambulance has installation an emergency centre locally but says name numbers have again to everyday.

Mayor Lianne Dalziel says cliffs collapsed at Whitewash Heads, Sumner, and on Wakefield avenue at the eastern facet of Richmond Hill.

Ms Dalziel stated the metropolis turned into in a much better nation than it changed into when the deadly 6.three-quake hit on February 22 in 2011 however it did not anything for the nerves.

“It really is a actual set-again psychologically for the metropolis,” she stated.

3 colleges - Christchurch women’ high faculty, Aranui excessive school and St Thomas of Canterbury - can be closed on Monday and the Ministry of education said it turned into up to individual schools to decide in the event that they opened.

there was visitors chaos as human beings rushed domestic to test on cherished ones. Water mains are burst and damaged mobile phone websites are being repaired.

Christchurch health center reviews no boom above ordinary in patient numbers and it’s checking minor damage to its homes. It’s shifting moms and infants from Burwood health center inside the jap suburbs as a precaution.

“Grabbed the television to prevent it falling, books off, automobile alarms prompt by way of it within the neighbourhood,” Belinda McCammon tweeted immediately after the quake.

“all at once the air all complete of sirens and birds,” every other man or woman tweeted.

Aftershocks of up to three.5 continue to hit the town.

A spokesman for Sumner Surf existence Saving membership said the membership changed into forming a sea patrol with the Taylors Mistake club to check no boaties or walkers were stuck by using falling rubble across the cliffs.

anyone was “a bit freaked out”, he advised AAP.

Sumner was badly hit via the 6.three value February 22, 2011 quake, and 3 human beings died there out of the metropolis general of 185. Civil defence has showed no tsunami threat has been issued. A fireplace provider spokesman stated there were name-outs however “now not an excessive amount of”.

Orion power says about 500 customers misplaced energy in northeast Christchurch and Piper Valley on Banks Peninsula. The wide variety is now all the way down to one hundred ninety.

buying malls and Canterbury university had been evacuated as a precaution.

This quake turned into targeted 15km east of Christchurch and changed into 31km deep - with human beings as some distance north as Palmerston North and as a ways south as Dunedin reporting they felt it.

GeoNet spokeswoman Anna Kaiser advised AAP the quake was focused barely offshore and became to the east of a sequence of quakes because the so-called Darfield quake broken Christchurch.

She said quakes had been regularly shifting eastwards.

“genuinely they’re related to the earthquakes 5 years in the past. This earthquake is without a doubt part of the equal element,” she stated. She said there might be many aftershocks due to the fact Sunday’s quake was shallow.

Liquefaction has been reported at New Brighton and Pines seashore at the jap aspect of the town.

The Lyttelton Tunnel, which links the metropolis to its port, has been checked and is open. The airport has remained open.

An NZTA spokeswoman says all highways stay open and bridges are being checked.