Updated November 14, 2016 09:13:42
A powerful earthquake and hundreds of strong aftershocks have rocked New Zealand, killing at least two people and prompting a tsunami warning that sent thousands fleeing to higher ground.
With communications cut off, emergency response teams were flying by helicopter to the region at the epicentre of the magnitude-7.5 quake, about 90 kilometres north-east of Christchurch in the South Island, amid reports of injuries and collapsed buildings.
Civil Defence downgraded the tsunami threat soon after 6:00am (local time) for many coastal areas but said the threat of waves measuring up to five metres remained on a long stretch of land on the South Island's north-east coast.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key told a dawn news conference in the capital of Wellington, where the quake was also felt strongly, that two people had been killed.
Police said one of the victims was found in a house in the coastal tourist town of Kaikoura.
"We don't have any indications at the moment to believe it (the death toll) will rise, but we can't rule that out," he said.
"It was the most significant shock I can remember in Wellington. There will be quite major costs around roads and infrastructure."
Mr Key said a military helicopter was being dispatched to Kaikoura, near the epicentre of the quake.
Acting Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee said it was too early to assess the full extent of the damage.
Power was out and phone lines down in many parts of the country.
The powerful quake hit just after midnight (local time), with strong jolts causing some damage to buildings more than 200 kilometres away in the capital, Wellington.
Soon after the quake, Anna Kaiser, a seismologist at GNS Science said a tidal signal or surge of up to one metre had already been recorded in the North Canterbury region of the South Island.
"That's reasonably significant so people should take this seriously," she told Radio New Zealand.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said there was no immediate danger of a broader Pacific-wide tsunami from the quake.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Sunrise this morning that he had called his New Zealand counterpart to offer assistance.
"I spoke with John Key a few moments ago. I assured him of absolute solidarity and support from Australia," he said.
"He knows that we support them when it comes to emergencies and natural disasters."
Effects felt as far as Wellington
In Wellington, 214 kilometres north of the quake's epicentre, power was knocked out in some places, with windows smashed and chimneys damaged.
Radio New Zealand said the Wellington City Council had received multiple reports of significant damage.
Local media reported landslips and extensive damage to roads.
A series of aftershocks were recorded around the country, some as strong as magnitude-6.1.
The Marlborough District's Civil Defence said it would be daybreak before there was a clearer picture of the situation and helicopters would do a sweep of coastal areas as work begins to assess the damage.
Evacuation centres had been set up at locations across the affected area.
Earthquake 'scarier than normal'
ABC journalist Tom Maddocks was staying in Christchurch at the time of the quake and was evacuated from a hostel in the area.
He said the coastal suburb of New Brighton, some 10 kilometres from Christchurch, had been swiftly evacuated.
Chris Hill, a fire officer in Cheviot, a coastal town near the quake's epicentre, said officials had gone door-to-door evacuating residents.
"Everyone seems OK here. There's a lot of debris in houses, but at this stage it doesn't look like anything too bad has happened," he told Radio New Zealand.
Australian journalist Gemma Snowdon, who is living just north of Christchurch, told the ABC the tremor woke her from her sleep.
"I ran outside with my housemates and we quickly realised what was going on and the ground just shook and shook and shook and it seemed never-ending," she said.
Snowdon said the situation was "scarier than normal".
"I have been hearing sirens and alarms going off throughout the city. I think everyone is a bit shaken up by this," she said.
"[Earthquakes] are a common occurrence but this one was particularly long and protracted."
Authorities rush to respond
The New Zealand police said they had responded to hundreds of emergency calls after the quake temporarily knocked out New Zealand's emergency call number, 111.
Many roads across the northern part of the South Island though remained impassable, preventing authorities from reaching many of the worst-affected areas.
Within New Zealand there was some confusion about the tsunami threat.
The Ministry for Civil Defence had earlier sent out a message on Twitter saying there was no tsunami threat to the country.
But it then sent another message, "situation has changed — tsunami is possible" before reporting a tsunami had hit.
It said the National Crisis Management Centre had been activated to coordinate the central Government's response.
The quake struck at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometres. Earthquakes tend to be more strongly felt on the surface when they are shallow.
New Zealand sits on the "Ring of Fire", an arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes are common.
ABC/wires
First posted November 13, 2016 22:32:02
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