Massive earthquake strikes NZ's Christchurch
Updated
New Zealand is reeling from a magnitude 7 quake as measured by the US Geological Survey which hit just 45 kilometres from the country's second largest city, Christchurch, at 4:35am on Saturday morning.
Nearly one hundred buildings in the CBD have been destroyed along with hundreds of houses in the suburbs of Christchurch, and authorities have ordered the city's schools to stay closed until at least Wednesday while engineers carry out structural checks.
It is also thought that some buildings that remain standing may have been compromised by a continual series of aftershocks. Authorities are expecting that more buildings will topple or will need to be demolished, and this morning have extended a state of emergency in Christchurch until Wednesday.
Our New Zealand Correspondent Dominique Schwartz is in Christchurch.
Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Dominique Schwartz, New Zealand correspondent
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