New Zealand quake: your reaction
| 09:14 UK time, Tuesday, 22 February 2011
This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 22 February 2011. Listen to the programme.
"We fell to the ground and covered our heads with our arms. There was tremendous roaring and screeching of buildings being torn apart. Knowing that there were people crushed in that building will stay with me forever. It was truly horrific."
The words of Helen Boothby in Christchurch, who emailed the ´óÏó´«Ã½ describing the experience of being in the middle of the earthquake that has ripped New Zealand's second city apart, killing at least 65 people.
A further 200 are believed trapped under the rubble resulting from the 6.3-magnitude quake.
Eyewitnesses have referred to the streets "liquifying" and the horror of being surrounded by collapsing buildings; the spire of the city's iconic cathedral fell into the main square.
The country's prime minister John Key has said it is a scene of "absolute devastation" and that "we just need this community, as it has done before and as it will do again, to come together, to check and support one another."
What's your reaction to what has happened in Christchurch? Have you been affected?
