22 February 2011 Last updated at 23:56 GMT
A total of 300 people are believed to be missing
Emergency shelters have been set up at the city's Hagley Park, a race course and public buildings
New Zealand earthquake: Death toll rises to 75
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Many parts of Christchurch were left in ruins after the quake
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has declared a national state of emergency as the death toll from Tuesday's earthquake in Christchurch rose to 75.
There are now 55 bodies in a morgue and another 20 being transported there following the 6.3-magnitude tremor.
Police have said there is "incredible carnage right throughout the city", with "bodies littering the streets".
More than 300 people are still missing. Forty-eight were pulled out from collapsed buildings alive overnight.
The earthquake struck at a shallow depth of 5km (3.1 miles) on Tuesday lunchtime, when the South Island city was at its busiest.
It was Christchurch's second major tremor in five months, and New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster in 80 years.
AmputationsMore than 500 search and rescue personnel, police, fire service staff, soldiers and volunteers worked throughout the night to find survivors trapped under the rubble, many using only their bare hands.
"There is incredible carnage right throughout the city," Police Superintendent Russell Gibson told Radio New Zealand. "There are bodies littering the streets, they are trapped in cars and crushed under rubble."
"We are getting texts and tapping sounds from some of these buildings and that's where our focus is," he added.
"It's quite amazing, we have some people we've pulled out and they haven't got so much as a scratch on them, we've had other people where we've had to amputate limbs to get them out."
A total of 300 people are believed to be missingAsked how many may still be trapped, Supt Gibson said: "It could be another 100 - it could be more."
Later, officials said a total of 300 people were believed to be missing, but details are unclear and officials are currently trying to refine that list. Some people may simply not have been able to contact friends and relatives.
The ministry of civil defence said 22 people alone were missing in Christchurch Cathedral, which lost its spire and a section of roof.
Twenty-four others have meanwhile been rescued from the Pyne Gould Guinness building and dogs have detected another seven still alive. The earthquake flattened the four-storey structure where hundreds worked.
"I rang my kids to say goodbye," said Ann Voss, interviewed by TV3 from underneath her desk inside the building. "It was absolutely horrible. My daughter was crying and I was crying because I honestly thought that was it."
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Ms Voss said she could hear other people still alive and had called out to them.
"I'm not going to give up," she added. "I'm going to stay awake now. They better come and get me."
Later, 15 survivors trapped in a six-storey building housing local broadcaster CTV and an English-language school were pulled out.
Amid scenes of devastation in the Cashel Street Mall, an injured baby was found in its dead mother's arms, witnesses said.
Tom Brittenden, who worked nearby, said the mother had run out of a shop during the earthquake and been hit by debris.
"We tried to pull these big bricks off her," he said. ''It was a big 1m by 1m cube which hadn't separated... She was gone. Some people who were helping took the baby away. They just put a blanket on her because she had already gone.''
Supt Gibbs said the death toll would be "significantly higher". The police are aware several locations, including a bus crushed by debris, where bodies have not yet been removed because their priority is to help those still alive.
Emergency shelters have been set up at the city's Hagley Park, a race course, schools and community halls.
The Red Cross has been trying to find accommodation for people sheltering outside in tents or under plastic sheeting.
All the schools in Christchurch are closed until further notice, as expert teams are assessing any potential damage to the buildings.
Prime Minister John Key declared a national state of emergency after a cabinet meeting in the capital, Wellington, on Wednesday morning. He said it would allow the greatest possible co-ordination of local, national, and international resources to work on rescue and recovery efforts.
He told residents of Christchurch that New Zealanders felt "your pain as only a small nation can".
"Things will get better. Christchurch will rise again," he added. "There is no reason that can make sense of this event, no words that can spare our pain."
Mr Key also ordered that the country's flag be flown at half-mast on all public buildings until further notice to honour the victims.
'Utterly shocked'Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, who is also New Zealand's head of state, said she was "utterly shocked" by the disaster, while US President Barack Obama offered his "deepest condolences".
Emergency shelters have been set up at the city's Hagley Park, a race course and public buildingsThe damage is thought to be far worse than after the 7.1-magnitude quake on 4 September, which left two people seriously injured but no fatalities.
The epicentre of that quake, which occurred in the middle of the night, was further away from the city and deeper underground.
New Zealand experiences more than 14,000 earthquakes a year, of which only around 20 have a magnitude in excess of 5.0.
The last fatal earthquake was in 1968, when a 7.1-magnitude tremor killed three people on the South Island's western coast.
Tuesday's was the country's worst natural disaster since a 1931 quake in Hawke's Bay on the North Island killed 256 people.
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