People in Christchurch have told Sky News of their shock and horror after a deadly earthquake devastated parts of the New Zealand city.
12:03pm UK, Tuesday February 22, 2011
:: Jo Kane, who lives on the outskirts of the southern city, said she felt like an "opossum in the headlights".
"This has shaken me to the core, I'm really concerned about friends that I haven't been able to get in contact with in the city.
"I've rung people whose homes were already damaged (in the last earthquake) and people are just really shocked, absolutely quite shell-shocked.
"Their houses are worse, there is no sewage, no water and they are just in darkness."
She added: "You do not expect this to happen twice, but that is what this city has got.
"This is a very serious situation for New Zealand.
I'm a Wellington girl and I grew up with earthquakes, but I'm telling you I'm sitting here with an expression like an opossum in the headlights.Jo Kane, Christchurch resident
"I'm a Wellington girl and I grew up with earthquakes, but I'm telling you I'm sitting here with an expression like an opossum in the headlights.
"It's the shallowness of the quake that has caused so much damage, but there are still many of us waiting for the people out of the city to come back home."
She went on: "The aftershocks are very very strong.
"We are very lucky we have still got power here.
"There are people trapped in buildings and we don't yet know what the death toll could be."
: Neva Clarke was in Christchurch Town Hall when the tremor struck.
"There was a meeting for secondary school teachers in the town hall so there were many teachers there for a union meeting. We were in the foyer when the earthquake struck.
"It was just frightening and threw me to my knees.
"Someone was saying to me 'get under the stairwell' and I was trying to drag a colleague behind me.
"It was just absolutely frightening and it seemed to go on forever.
"There was glass breaking all around me and I think we were fortunate to be where we were.
When we got outside there was just devastation everywhere and dust. It was just like what we saw in New York...in 9/11.Neva Clarke, Christchurch teacher
"When we got outside there was just devastation everywhere and dust. It was just like what we saw in New York...in 9/11.
"We had to walk back from there through roads and footpaths that were all uplifted.
"The Avon River, which runs through Christchurch, was very high and full of silt and there was liquefaction everywhere.
"It was just horrendous. Walking back to school, the roads were gridlocked with cars trying to get out.
"The devastation I saw was far more than the September earthquake, even though it was not as strong.
"It was a different kind of shake and caused far more destruction.
"It numbed me really for what I saw when I got home because our house is devastated and contents all broken.
"Everything's absolutely ruined."