Rescue teams are searching through rubble in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in New Zealand which has claimed at least 75 lives.
As aftershocks threatened to cause more buildings in Christchurch to collapse, hundreds of troops, police and emergency workers battled to find any signs of life.
With more than 100 people still missing and an estimated cost of £7.4 billion, the country's Prime Minister John Key declared it a national disaster.
Teams rushed in from Britain, Australia, the United States and Japan and elsewhere in Asia, along with a military field hospital and workers to help repair power, water and phone lines in the South Island city.
An Irishman and a man believed to have been a Briton were among the victims of the quake, which occurred at lunchtime local time on Tuesday.
Tributes have been paid to psychiatric nurse Eoin McKenna, from Monaghan county, who had lived in New Zealand for about six years.
Married to a woman from New Zealand, he was a well-known figure in his local Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).
Former school friends said father-of-two Mr McKenna had trained and worked in London and also spent some time in Saudi Arabia, where he met his wife.
Fabian Murphy, an old school friend from St McCartan's College in Monaghan, last met Mr McKenna when he returned home for a short visit in July 2009.
"He was as funny as ever. I have known him since we were four-years-old," Mr Murphy said.
