THE mayor of Christchurch has sent a message to his counterpart in New Zealand after the devastating earthquake at the weekend.
The 7.0-magnitude quake struck in the early hours of Saturday (September 4) local time and the epicentre was around 35 miles north west of Christchurch, which is twinned with the Dorset town of the same name and is New Zealand’s second largest city with a population of 386,000.
Nobody was killed during the strike, but there was widespread damage to buildings and roads.
On Saturday morning, mayor of Christchurch, Cllr Nick Geary, sent a message of support to his opposite number, Bob Parker, on the South Island.
It read: “All the people here in Christchurch send our heartfelt sympathies to the people of our twin town and our prayers and thoughts are with you all.”
Daily Echo sub-editor Lyndon Hogg is from Cambridge, on New Zealand’s North Island.
He said: “It’s a way of life for New Zealanders. They do have regular drills and stuff like that. It’s all built into our learning as well from school age. They would have been fairly well versed in what to do.”
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