Rescue efforts continue today. It is a slow and painstaking process and the safety of everyone working on the sites is paramount.

International effort

All international teams will be deployed again today, at large-scale sites and USAR teams continue to assess buildings throughout the city centre.

Large-scale sites

At the Cathedral, slow and careful progress with removing debris has continued overnight, using appliances supplied by local contractors.

USAR teams have inserted large steel tubes into some parts of the cathedral and are crawling through these tubes, pushing small hand-guided diggers in front of them to burrow in. From there, they are creating safe havens for themselves as they work outwards from these for further searching.

Outside the cathedral, steelwork is being used to stabilise the front section where the New Zealand USAR team is working.

There have sadly been no signs of life.

At the CTV and PGG buildings , ‘delayering’ of the buildings will continue today. This means removing debris piece by piece, slowly and carefully, and will take considerable time.

The Grand Chancellor building has been safety-assessed and USAR teams have now begun searching surrounding buildings. This work began early this morning.

Public safety

We urge members of the public to continue to remain away from the centre of operations inside the cordon.

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