Search for trapped abandoned at NZ office building

It’s really sad to know (and see) that people are suffering this way…

These natural disasters remind us of just how fragile our lives are. One moment everything is fine and then instantly, in a matter of seconds, our lives are turned inside out; if not completely destroyed. This is why as is so often stated but rarely practiced, we should make the most of each day on this Earth. TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – Numerous foreign students could be among the dead in an office building that collapsed in New Zealand’s earthquake, police said Wednesday, adding they were “100 percent certain” no one trapped in the rubble was alive.

Authorities called off rescue operations at the Canterbury Television building, where an unknown number of people were working when the quake struck Tuesday. Those trapped were thought to include as many as 10 Japanese students attending a language school on the premises and 15 employees from a TV station.

“We don’t believe this site is now survivable,” police operations commander Inspector Dave Lawry told reporters, adding the tower of the building that remains standing is in danger of collapse, weakened by quake aftershocks and fire.

A number of overseas students were in the building when it toppled and had not been located, he said, adding that he could not give an exact number.

“At a certain point, I’m not going to risk my staff (searching) for people who I believe have no chance of survivability,” he said. “That’s the end of it.”

Canterbury TV chairman Nick Smith said 15 of his employees who worked in the building were missing.

“We’re working on the assumption that everyone we haven’t managed to contact was in the building, and that would number probably 15,” he said.

He said staff who managed to get out of the building described a scene that was “like out of a horror movie” and broke down when recounting their ordeal.

“(They’ve) lost a lot of friends, a lot of colleagues, a lot of talent and a lot of lifelong relationships,” Smith said.

At the time of the quake, a group of Japanese students from the Toyama College of Foreign Languages was eating lunch at a language school called King’s Education, said Hisao Yoshida, the college’s head. According to King’s Education Ltd.’s website, it is located in the CTV building.

The students were part of a larger group of Japanese students and teachers, one of whom e-mailed her family back home using her mobile phone to say she was trapped in a building, Yoshida said.

Two teachers and eleven students were rescued from the twisted building, while 10 others were missing, according to Teppei Asano, an official at Japan’s Toyama city emergency room which was monitoring the situation.

Some of the rescued had broken bones and serious injuries, he said.

Most of the students were 19 years old, but two were in their 60s, including one who was rescued and badly injured, according to a release from Toyama city, on Japan’s western coast.

Two Japanese nurses who were taking courses at King’s Education were reported missing Wednesday, with the Japanese company that arranged their stay saying it had not been able to reach either woman or their host families. It wasn’t possible to confirm whether the women were in the building at the time of the quake.

Two South Korean students enrolled at the school — a brother and sister — were also missing, the country’s foreign ministry said.

Police earlier said more than 20 people had been rescued from the building and others had managed to escape. That search was now over.

“The sad fact is we’re removing resources form this site to other sites where there is a higher chance of survivability,” Lawry said.

“My heart goes out to those families … knowing that some of their children have probably been killed in this incident. We will do the very best for your people that we can,” he said.

The earthquake hit Christchurch, one of New Zealand’s biggest cities, during a workday, toppling tall buildings and churches, crushing buses and killing at least 75 people in one of the country’s worst natural disasters.

___

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi and Tomoko A. Hosaka in Tokyo and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

About The Great One

Am interested in science and philosophy as well as sports; cycling and tennis. Enjoy reading, writing, playing chess, collecting Spyderco knives and fountain pens.
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