New Zealand quake toll at 98, damage seen at $13 billion

Almaty. February 24. Kazakhstan Today - New Zealand quake toll has reached 98, damage caused by Tuesday's devastating earthquake in New Zealand may reach $13 billion, Kazakhstan Today reports.

Hopes faded of finding more survivors Thursday in the collapsed downtown towers of New Zealand's quake-shattered Christchurch, as officials said the death toll rose to 98 with grave fears for many of the 226 missing, Associated Press reported.

Police said up to 120 bodies may still lie trapped in the tangled concrete and steel that was the Canterbury Television or CTV building, where dozens of students from Japan, Thailand, China and other Asian countries were believed buried when an English-language school collapsed along with other offices. Twenty-three bodies were pulled from the building Thursday, but not immediately identified.

The official death toll from Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude temblor stood at 98, Police Superintendent Dave Cliff said. An additional 226 people were listed as missing, and Prime Minister John Key said there were "grave fears" that many of them did not survive. Among the dead were two infant boys, one 9 months old, the other 5 months, Cliff said. He did not give details of their deaths.

"We are very fearful tonight that the death toll could be much greater than any of us have ever feared," Key said, adding words of concern for the dozens of "international people that are caught up in this tremendous tragedy."

Rescue efforts so far had focused on the CTV building and a handful of other major office complexes that crumbled downtown, but work at those sites was shifting to the recovery of bodies while the remaining rescue efforts fanned out further afield. No new survivors were found since Wednesday.

In Christchurch, hundreds of foreign specialists - from the U.S., Britain, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan - arrived to bolster local police and soldiers and allow teams to broaden their search to smaller buildings not yet checked.

Tuesday's quake was the second major temblor to strike the city in the past five months.

It was less powerful than the 7.1 temblor that struck before dawn on Sept. 4, damaging buildings but killing no one. Experts said Tuesday's quake was deadlier because it was closer to the city and because more people were about.

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