Spotlight: Two people killed as tourist town cut off by powerful quake in New Zealand

Prime Minister John Key has described scenes of "utter devastation" around the tourist town of Kaikoura and nearby areas after a deadly earthquake rocked much of New Zealand early Monday.

Emergency services were trying to restore power and water supply, and reopen communications and transport to Kaikoura, on the northeast coast of the South Island.

Roads into the town were blocked by landslides after the 7.5-magnitude quake hit just after midnight.

Medical rescue helicopters and the air force planes were flying into Kaikoura, a popular tourist destination famed for its coastal scenery and whale-watching activities.

Police confirmed the two deaths, saying emergency services were still working at the scenes.

One fatality occurred at a property at Mount Lyford, north of Christchurch, on the east of the South Island, and the other at a reported collapsed property in Kaikoura.

Meanwhile, a dam on the Clarence River, just north of Kaikoura, breached on Monday, releasing a "large wall of water."

Local residents were urged to move to higher ground after a wall of water was sweeping down the river, breaking through the earthquake debris, Radio New Zealand reported.

State-owned television network TVNZ reported about 1,200 tourists were stranded in Kaikoura and the government was looking at ways to get them out.

However, a New Zealand Police spokesperson told Xinhua that emergency services had no information on how many overseas travellers were in Kaikoura when the quake struck.

"We don't have any information on specific individuals/groups who are in Kaikoura, but can confirm that Kaikoura is currently not accessible by road - so everyone there is stuck - locals and tourists alike," the spokesperson said.

"Government agencies are working together to provide support to people affected by the quake, including those in Kaikoura."

According to the Chinese consulate general in Christchurch, the first batch of six Chinese tourists has been airlifted from Kaikoura to the country's second largest city.

"Altogether 21 Chinese tourists, including one slightly injured in the head, have been found trapped in Kaikoura so far, and they are all safe now," Consulate-General Jin Zhijian said.

TVNZ showed footage of Prime Minister John Key and Acting Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee surveying the damage to Kaikoura from an air force helicopter.

"It's just utter devastation, I just don't know ... that's months of work," Key told Brownlee and pilots.

He hoped there were no cars stuck underneath the heavy rockfalls.

"It's lucky it was midnight," said Key.

Key and Brownlee estimated the clean-up would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars and clearing the debris and blocked roads could take months.

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM) said local state of emergency had been declared in Kaikoura and the neighboring Hurunui district.

"Civil Defence and Emergency Management groups across the country are sending people to the region to help. Search and rescue are on the ground and (the New Zealand Defence Force) is doing an aerial inspection so we can get a full picture of the help that is needed," MCDEM management director Sarah Stuart-Black said in a statement.

The St John ambulance service said it had two fully crewed ambulances operating in Kaikoura, despite earthquake damage to the Kaikoura Ambulance Station.

Additional paramedics and other ambulance officers had been transported into the area by helicopter, said the service.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said it had mobilized at least three aircraft to support the government's response to the severe quake.

Key and Brownlee said in a televised press conference earlier Monday that it was impossible to rule out further fatalities.

"On the very best information we have at the moment, we think it's only likely to be two, but of course there are isolated parts of the country in which we don't have perfect eyes on so we can't be 100 percent sure, but we're not aware of any that we're not reporting," said Key.

Structural engineers were also checking buildings in the capital, Wellington, where the quake was felt strongly.

The quake was centered 15 km northeast of Culverden, on the east of the South Island, and struck at 12:02 a.m. on Monday, according to the government's GeoNet monitoring service.

It is being followed by many aftershocks, the largest of them a magnitude of 6.3.

GeoNet scientist Sara McBride said the quake was the largest recorded in New Zealand since a magnitude 7.8 quake in the Dusky Sound, at the top of the South Island, in 2009.

"We can say one thing with certainty: there will be more earthquakes to come in this area," McBride said in a statement.

"It looks like we've got two separate but related quakes going on. Our reports indicate that the combination of these two quakes lasted two minutes, with the most severe shaking at around 50 seconds. It was widely felt throughout both the North and South Islands. It looks like one was a strike-slip and the other was a thrust fault."

A tsunami warning from Wellington, on the North Island, to Banks Peninsula, on the east of the South Island, was lifted later Monday afternoon, said the MCDEM.

New Zealand is frequently rattled by earthquakes, most of which do no damage and cause no injuries, but Monday's tremor brought back memories of the 6.3-magnitude quake that killed 185 people in Christchurch in February 2011. Endit