New Zealand commemorates 5th anniversary of quake that killed 185

New Zealand marked the fifth anniversary of an earthquake that hit the city of Christchurch in 2011 and killed 185 people with a public memorial service for the victims on Monday.

“Today we reflect on the Christchurch earthquake, remember those we lost & look forward with optimism to the future,” said New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, in a tweet.

On Feb. 22, 2011, a 6.3magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch, on the east coast of the country’s South Island, damaging 30,000 buildings.

The quake, the worst natural disaster to have hit the country in over 80 years, left the city in ruins.

Close to twothirds of the dead were those inside a local TV station building, which came down with the impact.

Key also attended a civic memorial service Monday, sponsored by city authorities and which will be the last such organized by the Christchurch town council, said Mayor Lianne Dalziel.

At the event, the names of all those who died in the tragedy were read out, followed by a minute of silence.

Thousands of people also tossed flower bouquets in the Avon river, which flows through the city, in memory of the victims.

The city, home to around 400,000 people, is being slowly rebuilt, even as some residents complain of unsettled insurance claims.

Thousands of residents had gathered on the streets Sunday to protest against delays and lack of support from authorities.

“It wasn’t the earthquake that killed all the people on the bus, it was the building, and it was the city council’s lack of requiring the building owner to fix it, and the city council’s lack of bringing it down, and the city council’s lack of putting up a fence. No, no, no, it was not an accident,” Ann Brower, the lone survivor from among nine passengers traveling in a bus that got crushed under a falling house, told Radio New Zealand.

New Zealand is located on one of the tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean and experiences about 14,000 earthquakes annually, 20 percent of which measure 5 or above on the Richter.

In 1968, a 7.1magnitude quake killed three on the west coast of the South Island, but the most serious one was in 1931 in the city of Napier on North Island, when 256 people lost their lives.