CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (Kyodo) Disaster-relief teams from Japan and other countries continued working Saturday to find signs of survivors at the collapsed CTV building housing the King's Education language school where Japanese and other students are still feared to be trapped.
Yukio Yoshii, who heads Japan's disaster-relief team, told reporters that the rescue teams are doing their utmost to find survivors.
"Although we are exhausted, our operations are proceeding smoothly," he said.
In the morning, local police met with family members of people who are unaccounted for and briefed them on the rescue work. A total of 55 people from Japan attended the meeting.
The police said local authorities will be careful in identifying the bodies, while asking them to provide information that will help facilitate their efforts, a Japanese government official said.
Around 40 family members of the Japanese students wanted to visit the collapsed building Friday but could not get permission from local authorities due to continuing aftershocks.
The death toll from the earthquake was 145 as of Saturday.
