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Wellington.– An earthquake with a magnitude equivalent to the one that rocked Haiti has hit New Zealand's South Island early Saturday, local media reported today.

The powerful 7.1-magnitude quake has not occasioned a tsunami alert and while there have been limited reports of injuries, substantial damage and looting has taken place in Christchurch.

A state of emergency has been declared in order to try and restore order and to coordinate recovery operations. As darkness fell in New Zealand's second-largest city, a curfew was put in place for central Christchurch from 7pm tonight until 7am tomorrow.

The quake, which hit 30 kilometers west of the southern city of Christchurch, shook a wide area with some residents saying buildings had collapsed and power was severed.

Christchurch Hospital said it had treated two men with serious injuries and a number of people with minor injuries. One man was hit by a falling chimney and was in serious condition, while a second was badly cut by glass, hospital spokeswoman Michele Hider said.

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COMMENTS
8 comment(s)
Written by: Blutarsky This user is banned, 4 Sep 2010 2:04 PM
From: Dominican Republic, No Spin Zone
the contrast in fatalities is stunning ....also in construction standards
Written by: Ricardolito, 4 Sep 2010 2:41 PM
From: Dominican Republic, vieja Santo Domingo
New Zealand has always had very high building standards and the buildings are expensive to build ,,even 30 years ago the load bearing standards were high ,,,New Zealand has shakes every day of at least 4.0 but not so much at Christchurch which is in the less populated southern island and is a very attractive english style city .This was the worst earthquake since 1931 with the epicentre 40 kilometres from the capital .
The entire country is so different to Haiti with a small population widely dispersed and of course first class emergency responses .
Written by: ScandiViking, 5 Sep 2010 2:48 AM
From: Denmark
With all the damages caused by this quake taken into account the high building standards in NZ, one cannot imaging the horrific situation should the same ever happen to SD.
Written by: Blutarsky This user is banned, 5 Sep 2010 7:22 AM
From: Dominican Republic, No Spin Zone
scandi are you insinuating that SD does not have high standards ?
Written by: ScandiViking, 5 Sep 2010 9:29 AM
From: Denmark
Blu, No - it would never struck my mind. By the way you are probably in the safest area in SD. Good ol building engineering. As for the other areas I would think the poor will have an advantage in a wooden shack. All others start running.
Written by: ateo2010 This user is banned, 5 Sep 2010 10:03 AM
From: Dominican Republic, Owning Noobs
ScandiViking, The SD area unlike other parts of the country or port-au-prince inst crowded with that much wooden shacks, its mainly blocks of concrete and steel bars. New road constructions such as overpasses, express ways and tunnels have and are being built with the latest technologies in case of an earthquake. I wouldn't expect the same level of catastrophe as in POP, 3 times less or lesser and that's outside the national district .
Written by: Blutarsky This user is banned, 5 Sep 2010 11:04 AM
From: Dominican Republic, No Spin Zone
scandi that what I figure 500 years old and still standing same with hurricanes
Written by: ScandiViking, 6 Sep 2010 6:22 AM
From: Denmark
Blu - that is proof.
Ateo - I wish you are right - but be prepared for the worst.
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