* Search called off at TV station and school showing 'no signs of life'
* Race against time to free people trapped in the rubble
* Briton and Irish citizen confirmed killed in the disaster
* Deadliest New Zealand natural disaster for 80 years
Hope is fading fast for hundreds of people who are still missing, feared dead in Christchurch as searches in the city are called off.
Families, friends and colleagues are being told to prepare for the worst as they are told the chances of finding their loved ones alive are extremely low.
A few experienced joy and relief as people were pulled from the wreckage with bleary eyes but barely a scratch on them, but those scenes are not expected to be repeated as time goes by.
At least 75 people have now known to have died but there are still around 300 people missing under deep piles of rubble and huge chunks of concrete.
Razed to the ground: The Canterbury TV building today, where police now say there is no hope
Rescuers called off a search at Canterbury TV station and a language school where about 25 people are missing, feared dead.
Elsewhere, rescue workers were inching their way through the ruins of a chapel in central Christchurch early today after 'signs of human life' were located.
The identity of the person believed trapped in the rubble was not immediately revealed but officials said they were hoping they would have a successful rescue as the day proceeded.
The signs that someone was alive came from the wreckage of the Holy Cross Chapel, close to the ruined city cathedral.
Even as rescue crews began working on the chapel's wreckage another aftershock - the 19th in 12 hours - occurred, causing work to stop temporarily.
Work at several sites during the night failed to find any survivors.
The city's tallest hotel suffered severe structural damage in the quake and a surrounding area has been cleared over fears that it could topple at any moment.
Marking the desperation now felt in New Zealand, John Hamilton, the director of the country's Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, said people only had a window of a couple of days to be given a reasonable prospect of survival.
Some seriously injured victims trapped deep in rubble of some of the city's most iconic buildings had to have limbs amputated before they could be freed.
The Canterbury television building, reduced to a pile of debris and twisted metal, was initially the focus for relief efforts amid estimates 100 people were trapped inside.
Teenagers Lizzy and Kent Manning were among those waiting on the sodden grass outside, desperate for news of their mother.
Despite the utter devastation before them and warnings that chances of survival of those trapped were slim, the pair were determined to stay hopeful.
With tears pouring down her face, Lizzy, 18, insisted: 'My mum is superwoman, she'd do anything' but at that very moment, a police official came over and started: 'I have some horrible news...'
The pair were told their mother Donna, a TV presenter, could not have survived and that everyone trapped was now believed to be dead.
The Manning siblings, their heartbreak etched on their faces, bowed their heads and wept as their father Jonathan rushed over to wrap them in his arms.
The family became the face of the tragedy in New Zealand today as, across the country, relatives were struggling to absorb the same, devastating news.
Between 80 and more than 100 are believed to be stuck in the single building after the catastrophic earthquake ripped through the picture postcard city on Monday.
Rescuers were forced to call off attempts to save them because the structure was so badly damaged. Police say they are '100 per cent certain' no one left inside could have survived.
Police operations commander, Inspector Dave Lawry, said: 'We don't believe this site is now survivable' and warned the building's tower is now also in danger of collapse.
'At a certain point, I'm not going to risk my staff [searching] for people who I believe have no chance of survivability. That's the end of it.'
He added: 'My heart goes out to those families... knowing that some of their children have probably been killed in this incident. We will do the very best for your people that we can.'
It is not known exactly how many people were inside the building, but they included up to 10 Japanese students at a language school and 15 staff from a TV station.
Canterbury TV chairman Nick Smith said 15 of his employees who worked inside were missing.
'We're working on the assumption that everyone we haven't managed to contact was in the building, and that would number probably 15,' he said.
He said staff who managed to get out described a scene that was 'like out of a horror movie' and broke down when recounting their ordeal.
'[They've] lost a lot of friends, a lot of colleagues, a lot of talent and a lot of lifelong relationships,' Mr Smith said.
Officials say the death toll stands at 75 but emergency workers believe it could climb as high as 300 once the rubble is cleared.
It has now been confirmed a Briton and an Irish citizen are among the victims.
The Briton, who has yet to be named, had lived in Northern Ireland and had an Irish wife. The Irishman has been named as Eoin McKenna, originally from Monaghan.
Some 120 people were rescued overnight but hundreds remain unaccounted for as exhausted rescue workers, using thermal cameras, continued to hunt for signs of life.
There are fears weakened buildings that are so far still standing - including the 27-floor Hotel Grand Chancellor - are also on the brink of collapse.
Police Superintendent Russell Gibson, speaking on Radio New Zealand, said there were scenes of 'absolute carnage' in the city centre.
'There are bodies littering the streets. They're trapped in cars, crushed under rubble and where they are clearly deceased our focus unfortunately at this time has turned to the living.'
Amid the tragedy of death and serious injury, there were remarkable stories of people being pulled from the rubble without a scratch more than 24 hours after the quake.
Ann Bodkin, who had been stuck in the twisted metal and concrete remains of the Pyne Gould Guinness building, was brought out and reunited with her husband this morning.
As she was carried to safety, grey drizzle gave way to sunshine. Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said: 'They got Ann out of the building and God turned on the lights.'
However, Mr Parker warned people to prepare for further heartbreak as hopes of more rescues dwindled. 'We need to harden ourselves for what we are going to hear,' he said.
'We are getting people out alive so keep your hopes up, but it is going to be a hard day. I think as the news begins to unfold today we will have a clearer picture and it is not going to be a happy picture.'
One construction manager described using sledgehammers and chainsaws to cut into the Pyne Gould building from the roof, hacking down through layers of sandwiched offices.
The team found horrific scenes of bodies crushed under concrete slabs. One seriously injured man who was trapped died as he was talking to rescuers, Fred Haering said.
Another victim's leg was pinned by concrete. To save him from certain death, he was given drugs to deaden the pain and his leg amputated with the hacksaw.
Mr Haering said: 'It's a necessity of the game. How are you gonna get out?'
Blood-covered survivors stumbled in a daze through the rubble-strewn streets.
There were reports that a baby was lifted from its dead mother's arms after the woman was struck by rubble from a collapsed building.
Mall worker Tom Brittenden said: 'There was a lady outside we tried to free with a child. A big bit of concrete or brick had fallen on her and she was holding her child. She was gone.'
The trapped continuously called for help - many with extraordinary calm. Australian Anne Voss was stuck in the Pyne Gould office block yesterday.
Speaking on her mobile phone, she told how she was 'sort of squashed' under her desk with an injured hand and said she thought another 30 were also trapped inside.
'I can't see,' she said. 'I can hear the others calling out for help but I don't have contact with them because I can't move.
'I rang my kids to say goodbye. It was absolutely horrible. My daughter was crying and I was crying because I honestly thought that was it. You know, you want to tell them you love them don't you?'
She added: 'I'm not going to give up. I'm going to stay awake but it's dark and horrible in here.'
Fears had been growing for her safety after her phone battery died but miraculously, she too was apparently rescued today.
Her first words to her son after emerging into the daylight were: 'I'm sure someone's watching over me', according to the Herald Sun.
Her son Robert only found out his mother was alive when he arrived in Christchurch from Melbourne and believes the desk saved her life.
'It would definitely be over. We are just overjoyed and amazed, as well as concerned for the other people as well. She seems as happy as she could be,' he said.
Christchurch, said to be more English than England, has a population of 340,000 and is New Zealand's second largest city after Auckland.
Known as the Garden City, it welcomes many thousands of Britons every year, many of them visiting relatives who have emigrated there.
The quake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter Scale, brought the spire of the South Island city's stone cathedral crashing to the ground.
Canadian Carole Young wept as she told how she and her husband Ross had a narrow escape from death as debris rained down around them while they were on a tour of the cathedral.
'The way it was all coming down as we fled...it reminded me of 9/11,' said Mrs Young. 'It was all tumbling down around us. We know that people died in there so someone was looking after us.'
Office blocks collapsed, roads buckled and cars were crushed. It also caused 30million tons of ice to break from New Zealand's biggest glacier, the Tasman, causing a tsunami with waves of up to 12ft.
The tremor - an aftershock from a quake last year - struck at 12.51pm, right in the middle of a busy lunchtime, at a depth of only three miles - its shallow nature provoking greater devastation.
The epicentre was under the harbour at Lyttelton, seven miles from Christchurch, as office workers were enjoying their lunch break in the city square which is dominated by the cathedral.
Briton Barnaby Luck said: 'Everything started shaking and it became more and more violent - it was like someone had got hold of the building and was shaking it and swinging it back and forwards.
Another UK citizen, Alec Allen, was playing tennis when the quake struck. 'There was a deep rumble like thunder then everything was shaking and people were screaming,' he said.
'I looked at the court and all of this mud just seeped up through the ground. The court started breaking up and flooding with water and mud coming through the earth.'
Many buildings collapsed because they had been weakened by a massive 7.1 scale tremor last September, which caused less devastation because it was at a much greater depth.
New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key said: 'We may be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day. People are just sitting on the side of the road, their heads in their hands.
'This is a community that is absolutely in agony. There are no words that can spare our pain. We are witnessing a violent and ruthless act of nature.'
Police have warned that anyone entering a cordon they have set up around the city centre without authority will be arrested after several arrests overnight for looting.
Hundreds spent last night huddled in emergency centres amid warnings of more aftershocks which could bring down more buildings. Power lines were down, leaving homes in darkness.
Householders were told not to take showers or flush lavatories because the city's water supply, sewage works and gas lines had been destroyed.
Experts predict insurance losses could reach $12billion, making the earthquake costliest natural disaster since Hurricane Ike in 2008.
Team effort: Rescue workers carry out Ann Bodkin from the Pyne Gould Guinness building
Rubble: An aerial of the site where the Canterbury TV building has collapsed.Razed to the ground: The Canterbury TV building today, where police now say there is no hope
Kent Manning and sister Lizzy, with their father, after being told there is no hope for their mother
Relief: Two men celebrating this morning after being pulled from a destroyed building
Cramped: Survivors and people left homeless in a disaster shelter
Sheer force: A buckled rail line after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake ripped through Christchurch
Destroyed: Murray and Kelly James look at their ruined house in central Christchurch
In ruins: Rescue workers search rubble near the Canterbury TV building
Sobering: As night fell on Wednesday, the TV building was little more than a mound of rubble
Crushed: A huge rock fell on buildings in Sumner
Reminiscent of 9/11: Rescue workers outside the collapsed CTV building
Devastation: A firefighter checks rubble near the collapsed CTV building
A rescue worker looking for signs of life in the rubble of the CTV building (left) and (right) a cracked road
The side of the Timeball Station was destroyed by the quake
Pulled from the rubble: Rescue workers help a woman from a ruined building today
Moment the earthquake hit: Extraordinary image of dust rising from Christchurch taken seconds after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck three miles below the city
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