Christchurch earthquake: "I'm dying Dad"

Feng Sun wants to join rescuers at CTV to look for student Yangtao Zhong. Photo / Supplied

The pain of loss from the Christchurch earthquake has spread around the world - with one Chinese man telling how his daughter called him from the Canterbury TV wreckage before she is believed to have passed away.

Cantonese student Chang Lai, a nurse from a hospital in Guangzhou, was one of the English language students in the building and the Yangcheng evening newspaper reported she called her father soon after the quake and said: "I'm dying dad."

Then the phone cut off. Lai's grieving colleagues have donated money to help her husband to come to New Zealand.

The couple married last year.

One of the few survivors from the building, Hongling Liu, has told China's Central Television that she was at a dining room on the fourth floor of the building when the quake struck.

She said more than 10 Japanese students and a few Chinese students were in the dining room.

Hongling said she felt the huge shake while she was using the microwave and the building fell down before she realised what was happening.

She wiped blood from her eyes so she could see and managed to crawl out of the rubble.

It is understood 35 Chinese students were at the training centre.

Meanwhile, Christchurch man Feng Sun is bitter he was not able to join the search for home-stay student Yangtao Zhong. The 31-year-old mother of one is now thought to be dead.

Sun tried to join rescuers at the CTV building but was turned away. "In the Wenchuan earthquake in China, many survivors helped other victims out of debris and saved lives. They were ordinary people and had no rescue certificates."

A team of eight Chinese rescuers arrived on Friday but Sun said it was upsetting to see a 70-strong Japanese contingent had been called in first.