Earthquake rescue teams move to Christchurch suburbs

Search and rescue staff are moving into the suburbs of Christchurch looking for the dead and injured from Tuesday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake.
Civil Defence Minister John Carter said the bodies of 71 people confirmed dead were in morgues but there were a number of other bodies yet to be identified. Police experts are using DNA, dental records and fingerprints to formally identify victims.
Police have said no more survivors were pulled out of the rubble overnight.
Speaking to media at the Civil Defence bunker in Wellington this morning, Mr Carter said search and rescue workers had been concentrating in the central city where most of those trapped were believed to be, but that personnel were now entering other areas.
Teams of 70 workers were now going to places where there could be smaller numbers of dead or injured, Mr Carter said.
American and British search and rescue teams were due to arrive tonight, he said.
The missing
Police have taken over collating lists of those missing since the Christchurch earthquake, with a figure of 300 just "speculation", Mr Carter said.
Mr Carter said information on the missing was coming from a number of different "information streams".
"Police are now acting to ensure that the lists are accurate and that we will have a definitive list of who's missing."
But Police Superintendent Russell Gibson told TV3 the number was "significantly more" than 300 however some people were reported missing just because they had not answered their mobile phones and that did not mean they were dead.
Prime Minister John Key said by the end of the day authorities should have a better idea of how many people were missing.
There have been issues putting a number on how many people are actually missing as many people may have left town following the quake without telling anyone.
"The longer someone has been missing and expected home, the more likely they have been caught up in the disaster - but it doesn't mean they are dead," Mr Key said.
"The police have been doing everything they can to see if people are alive - they've sent dogs in - but they are not getting very good signs people are alive."
He said he would be talking with police about the possibility of starting to release the names of bodies which have been identified.
Next of kin had been contacted in some cases, he confirmed.
"The priority must be with families, but there are also friends."
Mr Key said there was the possibility deceased had been called in missing by friends when family had been informed they were dead.
Infrastructure
Mr Carter said 431 patients had gone through the emergency departments since the earthquake.
He said reports showed water and wastewater are "significant issues for us" and that 80 per cent of the city was without reticulated water.
Power had been restored to 60 per cent of the city with the eastern areas worst affected by ongoing outages, he said.
Mr Carter said forty teams of building inspectors, EQC staff and welfare personnel were now beginning to check the safety of buildings and that number would increase.
Mr Carter said the Lyttelton tunnel remained closed to non-emergency traffic but main roads out of the city and the rail link between Picton and Christchurch were now open.
Medical staff
Medical staff have also been stretched to breaking point.
More than 150 St John staff travelled to Christchurch to back up frontline paramedics dealing with huge numbers of 111 calls. Patients were troubled by heart and breathing problems, chest pains, as well as crush injuries to heads, chests and limbs.
David Meates, head of the Canterbury DHB, urged all staff to report to work in anticipation of more seriously hurt people being found in the rubble.
Hundreds of survivors were also evacuated from the city yesterday, the Air Force ferrying the homeless to shelter in Wellington.
Outside the CBD, authorities warned of the risk of landslides and rockfalls near the quake's epicentre in Lyttelton. Falling boulders cut through a home and killed two people in the nearby Port Hills.
Liquefaction affected much of the suburb of Bexley, water bubbling up through cracked streets. Some sinkholes are as big as a truck.
According to GNS SCience there were aftershocks between 9.30pm yesterday and 6am ranging from magnitude 2.9 to 4.1 on the Richter scale.
The latest aftershock measured 3.3 and struck at 8.02am within 5km of Christchurch at a depth of 4km.
$16 billion
JP Morgan damage estimate
1000
number of rescuers by this weekend
40
police cordons in the city
Defence Force figures
NZDF Summary and Key points
* 1464 NZDF personnel directly supporting the operation
* 738 Army, 500 RNZAF, 226 Navy personnel
* RNZAF continues to run an air bridge between Christchurch and Wellington with the help of the RAAF and Republic of Singapore Air Force (a total of 1053 people moved out of Christchurch)
* Navy provided 700 meals in Lyttelton last night
* Canterbury will leave Lyttelton on Sunday to refuel and resupply in Wellington