Christchurch earthquake: at least four Britons believed to have been killed in New Zealand city
At least four Britons are understood to have been killed in the New Zealand earthquake, with two injured and one missing, the Foreign Office said.
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Gregory Tobin, 25, from North Yorkshire, was believed to have been working at a garage in Christchurch when the devastation struck. Photo: ROSSPARRY
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Pyne Gould building, Christchurch Photo: REX FEATURES
1:17PM GMT 27 Feb 2011
This came after local police said they expected the death toll in Christchurch to rise above 200, with the total number of confirmed dead now at 147.
More than 50 people remain unaccounted for, officials added.
The severity of the injuries sustained by those caught up in the magnitude 6.3 disaster has slowed the grim process of identifying the dead, and only one of the British victims' names has been confirmed.
Gregory Tobin, 25, a chef, from Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, had been on a round-the-world trip and was believed to have been working temporarily at a garage in Christchurch when the devastation struck.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We understand at least four British people are dead, one missing and two injured."
British High Commission spokesman Chris Harrington confirmed that two British nationals aged over 50, a male tourist and a woman who lives in Christchurch, had been taken to hospital with serious, but not life threatening injuries sustained in the tremor.
The man remains in hospital today but the woman has been discharged.
Another British woman was discharged from hospital after suffering a suspected heart attack following the quake, Mr Harrington added.
A British taskforce of disaster victim identification (DVI) experts is due to arrive in the city tomorrow to help identify victims.
The High Commission said the eight-strong team, which includes a pathologist, odontologist, and fingerprint expert, will assist experts from New Zealand and Australia.
Two members of the taskforce will arrive in the South Island city tomorrow afternoon, before being joined by the rest of their colleagues later in the week.
Meanwhile the New Zealand Fire Service and Urban Search and Rescue said they were making "good progress", and still hoped to find survivors at the three main sites most devastated by Tuesday's quake.
They are being helped by a 61-strong British specialist rescue team who arrived in the city on Friday to help search for survivors among the flattened buildings.
Deployed after New Zealand accepted an offer of help from the British Government, they have been working among the ruins of the Pyne Gould Corporation building in the centre of the city, using acoustic listening devices to pick up any sound of life.
So far they have recovered four bodies from the wreckage and were today working on recovering a fifth, but they remained optimistic in the hunt for survivors.
A spokesman for the group said: "They are still carrying on the search and rescue in the hope there are still people alive."
The moderate climate gave cause for hope, he added, as it meant there was more potential for people to survive among the debris.
"As long as they've got access to water they could survive for up to 10 days. It looks like carnage but it does look like there may be voids in there where people may be able to survive," he said.
A multi-national team of more than 600 rescuers from New Zealand, the UK, the US, China, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico and Australia, has continued to scour the city, but their efforts have yielded only bodies.
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