Resettled Bhutanese have been reported to be free from any risk as death toll rose to 98 as of Thursday evening in the quake-shattered Christchurch, New Zealand. Authorities said, at least 226 were missing.
Mitra Kumar Rai, who resides some five-kilometer away from the Canterbury Television (CTV) building, which has now turned into a tomb as searchers pulled dozens of bodies, told Bhutan News Service over phone this evening that not a single Bhutanese was reported to have met the ill-fated devastating quake’s effects.
“The earthquake has not harmed any of our fellow-folks,” Rai said,” However, majority of houses owned by the resettled Bhutanese suffered cracks and breaks.”
According to Rai, those who received major damages have been talking shelter in schools and universities.”My building was not affected,” added Rai, who stays in a wooden building.
The government and rescue teams have been on the ground to recover dead bodies or assist missing, he said, people still fear after-shocks even two days after a 6.3 magnitude quake struck the country’s second-biggest city.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said the death toll was certain to rise, possibly dramatically. “We are very concerned that the death toll may rise much more rapidly than any of us had ever feared,” he said.
“Frankly it looks like a war zone from a helicopter. It’s building after building after building that’s collapsed,” the online edition of the National Post reported quoting Key as saying.
The worst fears centred on the six-story CTV building, which was thought to be the deadliest single collapse with up to 120 people inside, including many missing Japanese students, caught as levels pancaked on to one another, the report said.
Officials said fresh teams from Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore and the United States would allow for an expanded search of three square km littered with flattened buildings.
Reported by Ichha Poudel from Adelaide, Australia, for BNS
