STRONG EARTHQUAKE HITS NEW ZEALAND

Buildings were reduced to rubble, essential services cut, and there were outbreaks of looting after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck New Zealand’s second largest city.

The quake, which hit Christchurch, population 386,000, on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, was just 7.5 miles deep, which meant it caused widespread damage.

Rubble on the street/Photo:AP

Damaged building/Photo:AP

The country’s largest recorded earthquake since European settlement was one of 8.2 on the Richter scale, which destroyed much of Wellington in 1855. The last fatal earthquake was in 1968 when a 7.1 tremor killed three people on the South Island’s West Coast.