Christchurch has been making headlines around the world -- with news of its massive earthquake almost blitzing coverage of continuing political crisis in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Libya.
International television networks -- including Al Jazeera, CNN, ABC, BBC, SKY, MSNBC -- led their news reports with the quake, in which at
least 39 people are now confirmed to have died.
Newspapers and websites from Britain, Europe, Canada, United States and Australia reported the event on their front pages.
The Jerusalem Post led its front page news with the headline ``Israeli feared missing in New Zealand earthquake''.
It went on to say that an Israeli backpacker was missing and feared to have died in the quake in which the number of fatalities were expected to rise dramatically today.
The backpacker's family had been told he was killed in the tremor but no official confirmation had been issued yet, the Post said.
In Britain leading newspapers The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian called it New Zealand's worst natural disaster in decades.
The Telegraph said ``tourists and shoppers that were thronging the cobbled streets below fled for their lives as New Zealand's most quintessentially English city was blanketed in a shroud of dust, death and destruction''.
It said that in the most potent symbol of what Prime Minister John Key described as the nation's ``darkest day'' was the spire on the city's Anglican cathedral, which was sent crashing down shortly after the quake hit at 12.51pm.
The Washington Post reported that as workers toiled to free those still trapped by the earthquake, social media sites had sprung into action to help the rescue effort.
In its news report, the Post reported people screaming from inside collapsed buildings, saying one woman used her cell phone to call her children to say goodbye. Others tapped on the rubble to communicate with those on the outside.
The New York Times added that rescue workers spent a cold, rainy night searching through rubble for survivors of the quake.
The Australian newspaper reported Attorney-General Robert McClelland as saying that Qantas was sending a Boeing 767 to Christchurch ``to get a substantial number of Australians who want to leave'' out of the city.
