Agony in New Zealand

The recent earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand did not only devastate that country but the Philippines as well. 

Many Filipinos, in the hope of finding greener pastures, are flocking to that country. In what could be a worst case of bad luck, some batch of nurses just arrived last Sunday (February 20) in Christchurch and was attending English language classes on Monday when the 6.3 tremor happened. 

There are no immediate news on what is happening to them. Until now.

Let us pray for the people of New Zealand and the Filipinos who are suffering there. Let us do what we can for all of them. May the Great God be upon them and us all.

UPDATE FROM NZHERALD.CO.NZ
This is a sad news. I hope the Filipinos still trap at CTV won't give up.

More bodies found at CTV

Rescuers have found several more bodies at the collapsed CTV building today.

A large team of Japanese searchers earlier entered the site with dogs and several bodies have now been carried out of the rubble in body bags.

Australian search and rescue personnel had been using specialist listening equipment at the site this morning but said they had not heard any signs of life.

Queensland USR Deputy taskforce leader Peter Dawson said that his team had spent the morning at the site after reports a text message had been sent from it.

"We have not been able pick up any confirmation of anybody... at the moment." he said.

Rescuers last night returned to the site to sift through the rubble despite police previously saying they were "100 per cent sure" there were no survivors after Tuesday's earthquake.

The site had been deemed too dangerous for rescuers, with fears more of the building could collapse and they pulled out to focus on the PGG Building around 1.30pm yesterday.

However, police issued a release early this morning saying work at the site had resumed and Civil Defence Minister John Carter later told media that Urban Search and Rescue crew had been able to return with equipment to secure the building.

Police stressed the work was a recovery operation as more survivors were not expected, but said the teams always remained hopeful.

More than 100 people were believed to be still in the building, which housed the regional television station, a nursing school and a language school, although Mr Carter said authorities did not have a figure for how many people could be inside.

Pictures grabbed from the following sources:

heraldsun.com.au; thakurproxy.appspot.com; minivannews.com