Emergency teams hoping to find survivors in the rubble have switched focus to the grim task of retrieving the dead.

Rock near the quake's epicentre may have compounded the effect of the tremor by reflecting greater seismic activity towards Christchurch city.

"I have lost a leg. They had to cut it off to save me." Those were the first words rescued student Kento Okuda said to his mother.

A woman found beneath the rubble of a building held her dead brother's hand as she cried out for help from under the debris - and her heart-wrenching cries prompted rescuers to carry on digging until they freed him.

Baxtor Gowland was born two weeks after the September earthquake in Christchurch. Yesterday, he was named the youngest victim of Tuesday's quake.

More than 200 elderly patients have been evacuated from rest homes damaged in the earthquake.

As many as 22 tourists are thought to be buried in the rubble of Christ Church Cathedral and its spire.

The people left in Bexley grabbed spades and started again, shovelling and scraping at the charcoal grey sludge which clung to their homes.

Twenty Chinese students at an English language school in Christchurch are missing following the massive tremor, Beijing says.

Homes and roads throughout suburban Christchurch have been destroyed. Here are some of the images of destruction.

The families of the many missing Japanese students feared killed in the collapse of the CTV building have told of their anguish.

Hundreds of people displaced by Tuesday's earthquake have set up camp at Christchurch welfare centres and more are flooding in.