Radio New Zealand listeners have reported workplaces in ruins, and houses and their contents destroyed.
Daniel O'Regan, who was in a building in central Christchurch, says part of the building separated and the same thing happened to several other buildings he could see.
[image:1293:full]Dale Rogers, who was in a hotel in Cathedral Square that was evacuated when the quake hit, said damage could be seen everywhere and there were clouds of dust from fallen masonry.
A Radio New Zealand reporter said concrete in Victoria Square had lifted at least a metre in some places and there were signs of liquefaction around the Avon River. A church in Durham Street had collapsed.
Radio New Zealand reporter in Christchurch, Jessica Horne, says her house has sunk into the ground and watermains have burst.
Passers-by staged the rescue of a group of 10 people, including a baby, from a building that had crumbled into the ground.
Pip Bramby said she was on the fifth floor of the Canterbury TV building, which was reduced to rubble with smoke coming from it.
A Sumner resident, Amanda Cropp, told Checkpoint how things were in her suburb.
Megan Hazeldean was working at the premises of her accommodation business Akaroa Cottages in Banks Peninsula, when the earthquake struck.
Bob Batty, a town planner, was at council offices in Amberley, an hour north of Christchurch. He says people thought the worst of the 4000 aftershocks were over.
"I can't emphasise enough how fragile people's nerves are down here," he said.
"Even if we hadn't had today's earthquake, people were very much on edge. Several people I know were still very, very upset by the previous earthquakes and today's will have just pushed them right to the limit, I would think."
