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Clean up begins after New Zealand earthquake

Clean up operations in earthquake-hit Christchurch, New Zealand are being hampered by gale-force winds and heavy rain.


The South Island city has continued to be rocked by aftershocks in the wake of the weekend’s devastating 7.1 magnitude earthquake – larger than the one that killed 200,000 people in Haiti earlier this year.


The quake caused the ground beneath the Christchurch to shift by up to 11ft, however there have been no reports of any deaths.


At least 100,000 homes and more than 500 commercial buildings were damaged in the biggest earthquake to hit a New Zealand city in almost 90 years. A 12-hour night time curfew is continuing in the central business district, where at least 90 buildings were damaged.


Power lines came down in outlying areas overnight, and 150 people were evacuated from a riverside holiday park threatened by floods.


Christchurch mayor Bob Parker repeated appeals to boil all drinking water after getting reports of outbreaks of gastroenteritis around the city and suburbs.

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