万花筒2007-12-24:New Zealand Quake 新西兰地震（在线收听）

This is the moment New Zealand's largest earthquake in 20 years' struck.

I was behind the counter serving a couple of customers and just the power of the earthquake was just absolutely amazing, and you could just see your stock just flying across the floor, you know, it's just absolutely incredible power.

The 6.8 magnitude quake was centered in waters off the city of Gisborne, on New Zealand's East Coast. Seismologists say its depth prevented the risk of a tsunami. Even so, by day the full extent of the damage became clear. Many local residents say they were fortunate to escape injury.

All over the blow, it was me and my wife were there and underneath the arch of the doorway and stayed there and we just going like this, and I thought quiet honestly the house was going to fall down, that's how bad it was.

We are just lucky that it was raining because most of the building fell onto a balcony which it was sunny most people would be dining outside.

11 people were treated for minor injuries. The quake was felt in New Zealand's capital Wellington more than 400 kilometers away. Sharp aftershocks continued to rock Gisborne. Authorities declared a state of emergency as the clean up began, though most people were able to return to their homes.

New Zealand is caught between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates and experiences around 14,000 earthquakes a year. But of those only a handful are severe and this kind of damage is rare. The most deadly struck in 1931, when 256 died after a quake hit the city of Napier, a few hundred kilometers south of Gisborne.

Andrew Potter, Reuters