NEW ZEALAND – More than 600 Australian and New Zealand doctors and nurses were attending the annual meeting of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand in Christchurch when the 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the country’s second biggest city on Tuesday (22 February).
The conference’s organiser told Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald the Christchurch Convention Centre, New Zealand’s largest purpose-built convention venue situated in the heart of Christchurch’s CBD, had been evacuated and all delegates were safe.
A Melbourne surgeon at the convention, named Nathan, told the Australian radio station 3AW: “I’m over here at a convention in Christchurch and just in the middle of a session the speaker was speaking and suddenly the ground shook, and glass was breaking and it was really quite frightening.”
“Fortunately nobody from our convention appears to have been severely hurt but there’s a lot of major destruction here in Christchurch,” he added.
The three-day conference, which attracted 600 delegates in total, started proceedings on the day of the quake and was due to finish on Thursday.
A doctor from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Marni Basto, helped the victims of the quake. “We’re just waiting for them to clear … any structural damage that would put us at harm and, once we get that OK, we’ll head in and try and help some people,” Dr Basto was reported on radio 3AW as saying. “We’re just trying to accumulate any supplies that we can; we’ve taken some from the stores around and everyone’s been very helpful giving medical supplies, everything that they’ve got so far.”
Christchurch police declared a downtown curfew as aftershocks were still occurring as the city finished a second day of recovery. The death toll has reached 75 and is expected to rise with 300 missing.
New Zealand’s Christchurch airport is closed at the time of writing and visitors have been urged to avoid all non-essential travel to the city, which has been declared in a state of emergency.
Picture courtesy of Pikerslanefarm.
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