Quake bodies 'may never be found'
The bodies of some victims of New Zealand’s devastating earthquake may never be recovered because they were pulverised by the buildings that collapsed around them, police said today.
Superintendent Dave Cliff said four more bodies had been pulled from rubble by recovery teams in the shattered city of Christchurch overnight, bringing the latest tally to 159.
But many more people remain missing and Mr Cliff has said the final tally is likely to be around 240.
More than 900 urban disaster specialists were working at sites across the southern city, picking through the remains of wrecked buildings and clearing away debris, as the massive operation moved into its second week.
No-one has been pulled alive from the rubble since 26 hours after the February 22 quake and authorities are pessimistic about finding any other survivors.
The operation to recover bodies has been slowed by near-constant aftershocks that have rumbled through the city, threatening to bring further debris raining down from damaged buildings.
Authorities have appealed for patience from families waiting for news of missing relatives, saying that the remains of some people caught in falling buildings can be identified only through DNA testing or dental records.
“There may be some cases where, because of the enormous forces involved in this, that it may not be possible to retrieve bodies in all cases,” Mr Cliff said. “We need to alert people to that possibility.”
Among those listed as missing are an unknown number of students and staff from Japan, China and other countries who were at an English language school that was housed in one of two office buildings that collapsed in the quake. Police said last week that up to 120 bodies were inside the Canterbury Television, or CTV, building, where the language school was located.
Strong winds were hampering rescue and recovery operations today, threatening to bring down bricks and masonry from already-damaged buildings and spreading clouds of dust around the city.
Some of the city’s 350,000 residents donned face masks when they went outside to protect themselves from the dust.
The magnitude 6.3 quake struck within a few miles of central Christchurch, when the city was bustling with workers, shoppers and tourists going about their weekday afternoon activities. It brought down or badly damaged office towers, churches and thousands of homes across the city.
Prime minister John Key said a commission of inquiry would investigate the circumstances of the quake, including a detailed look at why the CTV building and the other hardest-hit, the Pyne Gould Guinness building, collapsed.
The owners of the CTV building said in a statement issued by their lawyers they would co-operate with the inquiry.
Lawyer Ken Jones said the owners had commissioned a detailed structural engineers report after an earlier quake on September 4, which found superficial damage to the building from that temblor, but raised no structural issues.
