Christchurch Earthquake: Inquiry into quake will have to be held says Parker

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker says there should be an official inquiry into last week's 6.3 magnitude earthquake.
The confirmed death toll from the quake reached 148, one more than yesterday. More than 50 people are listed as missing.
Police this morning released the names of two more of those killed, bringing the total of officially named victims to eight. They were Natasha Sarah Hadfield, 38, of Kaiapoi, and Owen Morris Wright, 40, of Lyttelton.
More aftershocks rumbled through the city this morning and police started evacuating 60 properties in the exclusive Christchurch suburbs of Redcliff and Clifton Hills after cracks appeared in cliffs above the houses.
Mr Parker said that while the immediate focus of authorities had to be on the search for people in the collapsed buildings and helping the community, there would have to be an official probe into the quake.
``Personally I believe there should be an inquiry,'' he told reporters. ``Government will need to set the level of where that will be, or local government. That's a conversation we have yet to have.
``Essential for this city going forward is going to be public safety and the perception of the safety of the city. The only way we can achieve is through a very open process in which we will analyse what has happened, try to understand what has happened and if need be, where appropriate, we will be looking for changes.
``But we don't know the answers to those things yet, all we know is that seven days ago we were hit by a seismic event which was very unique for a major metropolitan centre -- very close, very shallow, very vicious. We need to understand more about all of these things.''
But he said the focus right now had to be on people.
``Let's get our people out of these buildings, let's get the infrastructure out to our communities.
``There will be time for all these questions, very important questions to be asked, and we will expect clear answers.''
Superintendent Dave Cliff said the police priority remained at working as fast as possible to make formal identifications and bring families more information about their loved ones.
He said that with the enormous forces of the quake and the fires in the CTV building, people needed to be prepared that in some cases human remains would be recovered, but not complete bodies.
``And that is enormously sad for us and the families involved. We do need prepare ourselves for that.''
One person was arrested last night and charged under the Civil Defence Emergency Act of falsely representing himself to Civil Defence, by impersonating a Urban Search and Rescue officer, and also with unlawfully possessing knives, a police baton and an axe.
Another person was charged with breaching the inner city cordon.