Cabinet will hold an emergency meeting at 9.30am to decide whether to declare a national state of emergency, Prime Minister John Key says.

Rescue workers are having to leave bodies in the streets of Christchurch as they focus on trying to save survivors of yesterday's devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake.

The official death toll from yesterday's earthquake in Christchurch has been revised to 38, but there are fears it could reach as high as 300 as rescuers uncover more bodies in the rubble.

Between the giant rubble littering the rain-drenched Colombo St, police pull another dead body and lay it down on a black tarpaulin.

Five World Cup games and two quarterfinals scheduled for Christchurch are in jeopardy after yesterday's big quake.

Hundreds of displaced people flocked to the Burnside High School evacuation centre last night to take shelter.

North Island hospitals are receiving Christchurch earthquake victims and plan to send specialists to help in the devastated city.

When the shaking begins, my first thought is "it's just another aftershock". There have been plenty in Christchurch since the big quake.

The earthquake that struck Christchurch during lunch hour yesterday was an aftershock seismologists hoped would never come.

Herald reporter Fran O'Sullivan is in Christchurch for the United States-New Zealand Partnership Forum and was having lunch in the CBD with delegates at the time of the quake.

The Christchurch earthquake death toll already ranks among the highest in New Zealand disaster history.

The Government was this afternoon waiting for details of deaths in Christchurch and a second emergency cabinet meeting will be held tonight.

New Zealand insurers face rate increases of more than 10 per cent for the renewal of their insurance this year, as Canterbury earthquake bill continues to mount.