KEY POINTS:
The dead and injured number less than a dozen, but the horror of a fatal hit-and-run outside a Christchurch party on Saturday night has affected a whole city.
Almost every one of the 355,000 or so residents of this city, it seems, knows someone who attended the party, was hurt or can find some other link to the weekend's tragic events.
It happened in the heart of the middle-class suburb of St Albans where students in old wooden flats and families in their character homes intermingle.
Thousands drive past this hit-and-run site daily on Sherborne St, a main route north from the central city, commuting to work or to shop.
Teenagers came from all over the city, and all walks of life, for this party. Hannah Rossiter was from prestigious St Margaret's College for girls in Merivale.
Jane Young attended alternative learning co-ed school Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti in the city.
Their schools will now host their memorials.
Traumatised teenagers who attended the party are now part of a large network using text messaging and internet websites to share information, gossip and rumour on what occurred and the state of the injured in hospital.
Parents are thinking how easily it could have been their own kids run down on Edgeware Rd that night.
On how the event has struck a chord with the residents, Christchurch mayor Garry Moore says : "It shows that we are basically just a village, or a series of villages. I suspect it is the same with other big cities in New Zealand, but we have kept a sense of community."
Mr Moore says his reaction was probably typical of anxious Christchurch parents.
"I went around each of my kids ... and gave them all a hug and told them how much I loved them."
