Sydney -
A woman trapped under her desk in quake-hit New Zealand spoke on Tuesday of her fears that the rest of the building might collapse on top of her as she waited in the darkness.
Anne Voss spoke by cellphone from inside the flattened Pyne Gould building, where she had been pinned under the desk for about eight hours since the 6.3 magnitude quake hit Christchurch at lunchtime on Tuesday.
“I am hoping they will get me out soon because I have been here so long. And it's dark. And it's horrible,” Voss told Australia's Channel Seven.
“I went under my desk and the ceiling collapsed on top of the desk,” Voss said. “So I am sort of squashed underneath. I haven't been able to move really.”
Asked whether she was OK, Voss replied: “I am not sure, I am bleeding.”
“I know I am bleeding and I can feel the ground is quite wet. I think it's blood,” she said, adding that she believed one of her hands was injured.
Voss, who said her son had rung her from Australia to check on her, explained she had been at the reception of the office when the quake hit and rubble had separated her from colleagues who were with her.
“They are on the other side and I have no idea what condition they are in or what's happening,” she said. “I can hear them at times, but we're just stuck. We're just waiting. It's really hard.”
The woman said family and friends had been calling her cellphone to help keep her spirits up, but confessed: “I keep thinking if it is just going to fall on top of me.” - Sapa-AFP