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1st LD: Airlift to evacuate tourists from New Zealand quake zone

Xinhua, November 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The New Zealand military on Tuesday stepped up efforts to evacuate some of the 1,000 tourists from a New Zealand township that was cut off in Monday's deadly earthquake.

Four air force NH-90 helicopters were set to join dozens of private aircraft to fly emergency supplies into the tourist town of Kaikoura, on the northeast of the South Island, and to fly out stranded travellers.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said it was also sending navy supply ship HMNZS Canterbury and offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington to help evacuate tourists and residents from Kaikoura and bring aid supplies to quake-affected areas.

All roads into Kaikoura, a popular tourist destination famed for its coastal scenery and whale-watching activities, were blocked by landslides in the 7.5-magnitude quake which struck just after midnight Monday.

"We have mobilized additional assets to support the government's response to the earthquake, and we have been working with the Ministry of Civil Defence to ensure the lifelines and basic needs of the Kaikoura community are met," Air Commodore Darryn Webb said in a statement.

"Our priority today is to evacuate the tourists and residents of Kaikoura who have been displaced by the earthquake and are now being accommodated at a local marae (Maori communal meeting place) and various community buildings."

About 5,000 kilograms of aid supplies earmarked for Kaikoura were at Christchurch, including food, water and hygiene products, and jerrycans of diesel.

Several international partners had also offered to lend a hand, and the offers of assistance are currently being considered, said Webb.

The area had been shaken by hundreds of aftershocks - some of them severe - and the aftershocks would continue, the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management said Tuesday.

The New Zealand Fire Service had deployed two water purification units and communications equipment to Kaikoura.

The equipment would ensure a supply of safe drinking water in Kaikoura and establish satellite communications and Internet for the disaster relief effort, fire service national response co-ordinator Paul Turner said in a statement.

Two people died in Monday's quake: one in a collapsed house in Kaikoura and another at a property at Mount Lyford, north of Christchurch. Endit