Drunks breach quake cordon

A cordon after the Canterbury earthquake. Photo / Greg Bowker

Drunken people, including law students and businessmen, have been breaching a cordoned area in earthquake-hit Christchurch, police say.

People had been squeezing through or climbing over the barbed wire fences blocking off the area in the central part of the city, central area commander Inspector Derek Erasmus said.

"They were mind-bogglingly stupid and wasting police time," Mr Erasmus told The Press.

Four people were arrested for breaching the cordon on the corner of Manchester and Hereford Streets.

Sixteen people had been caught on camera and they were all drunk, Mr Erasmus said.

- NZPA