Aftershocks rock New Zealand city after major quake

Aftershocks continued to rattle the eastern New Zealand city of Gisborne Friday after a powerful 6.8 earthquake smashed buildings and left a gaping hole in a street.

No major injuries were reported after Thursday night’s quake, which was felt throughout much of New Zealand, although many people had been Christmas shopping in the city area when it struck.

But Television New Zealand reported that an elderly woman in her eighties died just after the quake struck of a heart attack. Her family blamed the shock of the tremblor for her death, the report said.

The centre of Gisborne was cordoned off Friday and a state of emergency declared as engineers checked the safety of commercial buildings in the city of 42,000 on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island.

Gisborne District Council spokesman Vance Walker said an apartment building and two shops had partially collapsed and roofs and awnings had caved in. Eleven people were treated at Gisborne hospital’s emergency department for minor injuries, authorities said.

Aftershocks with a magnitude of 4.5 and 4.2 shook the area Friday morning, following the initial quake at 8:55 pm (0755 GMT) on Thursday, which was centred about 50 kilometres (31 miles) from Gisborne, government GNS Science seismologists said.

Reports said most of the major structural damage appeared to be limited to larger old buildings, although many residents reported damage to belongings flung across rooms in their homes. Following the quake, Kathleen Munn, who lives just outside the city, said the shaking was “horrifying”.

“The roof started creaking and the house started shaking, so I grabbed onto the doorway and the house started rocking from side to side,” she told Radio New Zealand.

“The books all jumped off the bookcase and the bottles all jumped off the table.”

“I thought the house was going to fall down. It was very, very frightening. I felt terrified.”

A central city resident, Tim Lewis, who was in a van when the quake struck, said plate glass windows shattered and verandahs collapsed in the commercial centre.

Gisborne, Friday, AFP