A powerful earthquake and hundreds of strong aftershocks have rocked New Zealand, killing at least two people and prompting a tsunami warning that has sent thousands fleeing to higher ground.<\/p>\n
With communications cut off, emergency response teams were flying by helicopter to the region at the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake, some 91 km (57 miles) northeast of Christchurch in the South Island, amid reports of injuries and collapsed buildings.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister John Key told a dawn news conference in the capital Wellington, which was also shaken violently by the quake, that two people had been killed. Police said one of the victims was found in a house in the coastal tourist town of Kaikoura.<\/p>\n
“It was the most significant shock I can remember in Wellington,” Key told reporters from the parliament’s underground defense bunker. “There will be quite major costs around roads and infrastructure.”<\/p>\n
Key was meeting national emergency officials later Monday morning. Stock exchange operator NZX Ltd said financial markets would be open as usual, although many offices in the capital were closed.<\/p>\n
Around 100 people, including children sleeping on floors and benches, were camped out in the distinctive parliament “Beehive” building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A powerful earthquake and hundreds of strong aftershocks have rocked New Zealand, killing at least two people and prompting a tsunami warning that has sent thousands fleeing to higher ground. With communications cut off, emergency response teams were flying by helicopter to the region at the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake, some 91 km (57 miles) northeast of Christchurch in the South Island, amid reports of injuries and collapsed buildings. Prime Minister John Key told a dawn news conference in the capital Wellington, which was also shaken violently by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3854,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions\/3854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}