Three hundred people are missing and 75 bodies have been recovered from the quake ravaged New Zealand city of Christchurch, local authorities said Wednesday.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said there were now 55 identified bodies at a morgue, which had been set up at local military base. Another 20 bodies had been recovered, but were not yet at the morgue and had yet to be identified.
Parker was hopeful that many of the missing would be accounted for over during recovery efforts.
Search and rescue staff also said many people remain trapped alive inside buildings destroyed by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake Tuesday afternoon.
More than 120 people had already been pulled from collapsed buildings as rescuers worked through the night under floodlights in the rain.
Earlier, police said they were having to leave bodies as they concentrated on getting to survivors, some of whom had to have limbs amputated to get them out of the rubble.
Prime Minister John Key held an emergency Cabinet meeting Wednesday and pledged all assistance possible to Christchurch in both the initial aftermath and the long rebuilding program ahead. He thanked the international community for assistance.
There were more than 200 search and rescue staff working through the city with another 500 joining them over the next two days as international offers for assistance come in. More than 1,000 armed forces have also been deployed to assist.
The quake struck on Tuesday around noon Tuesday when office buildings and streets were full of people.
Christchurch is New Zealand's second-largest city and home to around 370,000 people.
The quake was felt throughout New Zealand and caused 30 million tons of ice to break off from the Tasman Glacier, about 200 kilometers away.
