By Adrian Bathgate
CHRISTCHURCH (Reuters) - New Zealand's earthquake death toll was confirmed at 71, but Prime Minister John Key said on Thursday that the country must expect that number to rise.
The 6.3-magnitude quake devastated Christchurch, the country's second-biggest city, and rescue teams combed through rubble for a second night under searchlights. Searchers found no more survivors from Tuesday's earthquake.
"We do have to brace ourselves that while the official toll is 71 that number will rise today and tomorrow," Key told Television 3.
The death toll was previously put at 75 but officials revised that. "We have currently in morgues across the city 71 people confirmed dead, we are aware there are other bodies but we haven't got a number on that," Civil Defence Minister John Carter told reporters.
He said early reports of up to 300 other people missing was speculation and it was not known how many were unaccounted for.
Carter said around 2,500 people have been injured, 164 seriously.
Police said they were still holding out hope that people were still alive in wrecked buildings.
"Experts tell me that there are pockets within a number of these buildings, and providing people haven't been crushed there's no reason that we will not get people out of there," shift commander Russell Gibson said.
However, he said signs were not good for finding anyone alive in a flattened building that housed a local television channel and an English language school, which had many Japanese students, with as many as 100 people still in the building.
TEETERING BUILDING
Rescue operations have focussed on the city's central business district, which bore the brunt of the quake which struck early afternoon on Tuesday when streets and shops were filled with lunchtime crowds.
Fears that the 26-story Grand Chancellor Hotel, one of the city's tallest buildings, might collapse at any moment triggering a domino-effect with other unstable buildings has been hampering rescue efforts.
"It's incredibly dangerous...if it hits the ground it will create a significant shock wave," local mayor Bob Parker said.
The city has been shaken by more than 100 aftershocks since the initial magnitude 6.3 shake, bringing down more debris.
In the city centre, roads were buckled, buildings toppled and large pools of water welled up from broken pipes and sewers.
In places, roads had collapsed into a milky, sand-coloured lake beneath the surface, the result of Christchurch's sandy foundations mixing with subterranean water under the force of the quake. Officials call it "liquefaction" of the ground.
Investment bank J.P. Morgan has estimated that the quake could cost insurers $12 billion (7.4 million pounds), while catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide Estimates said the insurance industry faces damage claims of between NZ$5 billion ($3.5 billion) and NZ$11.5 billion ($8 billion).
Key on Wednesday said the estimates could neither be backed up or dismissed, but said the country could afford to rebuild the city.
INTERNATIONAL REINFORCEMENTS
Rescuers from the United States, Britain, Taiwan and Japan are expected to join the operation on Thursday. More than 1,000 workers were expected to comb though shattered Christchurch buildings on Thursday.
The new rescue teams would allow the search of wrecked buildings to be widened.
A national state of emergency has been declared and the central city has been under curfew with soldiers patrolling in armoured personnel carriers.
Thousands of people spent a second night in emergency shelters set up in local schools, sports grounds, and at a race course. Fresh water supplies were being distributed from schools and portable toilets set up around the city as services were disrupted.
(Additional reporting by Mantik Kusjanto in WELLINGTON; Writing by Gyles Beckford; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
