New Zealand authorities on March 3 ended their search for survivors of the Feb. 22 magnitude 6.3 earthquake that devastated Christchurch in the country's South Island. They judged that there was no possibility that any survivors remained under the rubble. The death toll from the quake rose to 166 by March 6 and is expected to reach about 200.
Twenty-seven Japanese are missing, 12 of them students from the Toyama College of Foreign Languages. Sixty-nine Japanese family members went to Christchurch in search of their loved ones. Most of them have returned to Japan. Whether in New Zealand or in Japan, the family members are suffering from anxiety and grief. The 12 students were in Christchurch studying at a language school in the Canterbury TV building, which collapsed during the temblor.
A first-year male student from the Toyama school was having lunch with a friend on the fourth floor when the quake hit. He was rescued some 12 hours later, but his right leg was amputated by rescuers in order to extract him from the rubble. A female student from the same school was also on the fourth floor when the quake hit, and thought that she would die because the space in which she was trapped was flooded. Fortunately, she was rescued.