By 3 News online staff
Two major earthquakes hit Christchurch this afternoon, triggering rockfalls and more liquefaction.
Just as residents thought their run of earthquakes were over, the city has been rocked again.
At 1:58pm a violent jolt shook the earth, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale.
Just over an hour later, a magnitude 6 quake left residents scrambling for cover.
Quick facts:
- Largest quakes measured magnitude 5.8 and 6.0
- Minor injuries reported
- Fresh liquefaction in the CBD, Eastern suburbs
- More damage to Christchurch Cathedral
- Red zone closed
- 26,000 Orion customers lost power
- Text, don’t call, relatives in Christchurch
- 60 treated for heart attacks, panic attacks, collapses
- Airport reopened, some flights cancelled, delayed
- Seismologist warns of more aftershocks
- Residents asked to look after neighbours, drink responsibly
Quake-weary residents get unwelcome reminder of February’s horror
Quake-weary Christchurch got an unwelcome pre-Christmas reminder of the horror of February when two large earthquakes hit the city.
Three unoccupied buildings have collapsed and there have been a dozens of minor injuries.
Four large quakes hit the city this afternoon, the largest measuring 5.8 and 6.0, while the lesser ones measured 5.3 and 5.0.
They were centred offshore, between 10km and 20km east of the city, at depths between 6km and 10km, according to GNS Science.
They were felt widely around the South Island but there was no threat of a tsunami.
There were widespread evacuations of shopping malls, buildings and Christchurch Airport and traffic congestion as people hit the roads to get home.
Residents at Windsor Hospital rest home in New Brighton were evacuated by the Fire Service.
Police are warning people to stay away from suburbs in the hills.
The eastern suburbs, which were hard hit by February's devastating quake, were again hit by significant liquefaction and flooding.
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) chief executive Roger Sutton told Radio New Zealand he had flown over the city and seen liquefaction in the CBD as well as in the eastern suburbs.
The Christchurch Cathedral appeared to have suffered more damage, he said.
A partly demolished building in the central city had collapsed along with a vacant house in the suburb of Hillsborough and a red-stickered house in Oram Ave, New Brighton.
In Kaiapoi, north of Christchurch, a stopbank is damaged and a building at risk of collapse.
St John Ambulance says it received around 150 emergency calls and it attended treated about 60 people for incidents such as heart attacks, collapses and panic attacks.
Power company Orion said an estimated 26,000 connections lost power in the eastern suburbs.
Christchurch Airport was evacuated after the quake, but was expected to reopen at 5.20pm with flights to resume at 6pm.
Christmas air travel for many people is expected to be disrupted after flights were cancelled.
The quakes rattled the fragile nerves of many Cantabrians, who would have been hoping for a Christmas free of tremors.
It also comes less than two weeks after the Christchurch City Council adopted a draft rebuild plan for the city, following the February quake.
Christchurch mayor Bob Parker said the quake would add to people's stress as they recovered from the devastating 6.3 quake on February 22 which destroyed much of the central city and killed 182 people.
Prime Minister John Key said he felt for the city.
"My heart goes out to the people of Christchurch and Canterbury at this time."
Cantabrians at the ‘end of their tether’
Labour’s earthquake recovery spokeswoman is describing the earthquakes as a “terrible end to a terrible year”.
Christchurch East MP Lianne Dalziel says people are at the end of their tether.
"It's heartbreaking, coming just two days before Christmas when people were just beginning to relax and were looking forward to a break," she said.
She paid tribute to New Brighton police, saying they sprang into action and set up an operations centre.
Seismologist warns of more quakes
A seismologist says Christchurch can expect to be rattled by more aftershocks after a cluster rocked the city this afternoon causing minor damage to some buildings, liquefaction and dozens of minor injuries.
GNS natural hazards research manager Kelvin Berryman said the latest quakes means the area would be in for a period of sustained seismic activity.
"We've re-sparked the aftershock sequence and so we are going to expect more in the coming months," he told Radio New Zealand.
Dr Berryman said aftershocks following the June jolt had started to taper off in the last few weeks before Friday's renaissance.
"It takes this sort of length of time for the stresses to build to release the next piece of a very complicated fault network."
He had begun to think they might have seen the end of the quakes despite GNS forecasts that they could expect a 5 or 6 magnitude.
"I had my fingers crossed, everything crossed, hoping we were turning the corner and things were dying away in the last few weeks but the stats and forecast model were saying yes, but."
He said aftershocks would continue to rattle the region with scores of smaller earthquakes expected to rattle the region well into next year.
Meanwhile, Christchurch officials reassure locals
Officials in Christchurch are reassuring spooked residents that today’s events will “pass quickly” so that they can all enjoy Christmas.
Christchurch's Deputy Mayor Ngaire Button and other officials fronted a press conference on Friday evening.
"Our hearts go out to the people of Christchurch tonight. We're just devastated that this has happened at this time of the year, right before Christmas," Ms Button said.
"We just wish the people well and we believe that this event will pass quickly and that we'll all be able to enjoy Christmas on Sunday."
She says infrastructure has held up well, although there had been some damage to sewer systems which was still being inspected.
Teams of Red Cross and Civil Defence staff would door-knock in the eastern suburbs on Friday night, and assessments were being carried out on properties in the Port Hills.
Christchurch police Inspector John Price asked motorists to slow down and be patient as congestion built on the city's roads.
Motorists were advised not to travel unless it was absolutely necessary.
Insp Price asked people to look after each other, check on their neighbours and drink responsibly.
"These aftershocks put a lot of stress on some people and we want to avoid adding too much more stress to people," he said.
The quake cut power to about 26,000 customers and phone lines were jammed, but officials were hopeful power would be restored to most before dark.
Orion chief executive Rob Jamieson says power has already been restored to about 7000 rural and central customers.
Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority chief executive Roger Sutton flew over the city shortly after the quakes, and said there did not appear to be much added damage in the central city, although Christ Church Cathedral sustained further damage.
Red-zoned eastern suburbs appeared to have suffered the worst liquefaction, while it was also apparent in Brooklands, Spencerville and Kaiapoi.
The city's red zone had been closed, but Mr Sutton said demolition work there had been scheduled to stop over the festive season anyway.
"There'll be a lot of people tonight feeling very, very frustrated," he said, but officials were confident they had the situation under control.
Farmers report ‘violent’ quakes
Rural Canterbury was hit by Friday's earthquakes, Federated Farmers says.
"Initial reports from our members is that it was an especially violent event," president Bruce Wills said.
"There might have been damage to grain silos, we need to get a picture of rural infrastructure."
Mr Wills says dairy farms are milking twice a day and electricity is vital.
He's asking farmers to contact Federated Farmers if they've lost power or have other problems.
3 News/NZN