WELLINGTON, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's second-largest city, Christchurch, on Saturday marked the 14th anniversary of a deadly earthquake that claimed 185 lives of more than 20 nationalities.
An annual public civic memorial service was held at the Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial on the banks of the Avon River in the Christchurch city center, and a minute of silence was observed at 12:51 p.m. when the 6.3-magnitude quake struck the city on Feb. 22, 2011, with a depth of only 4 km.
As a convention, the names of the 185 people who lost their lives in the earthquake were read aloud with the bell tolled with each name.
Among the earthquake victims were 24 Chinese students. The Chinese Consulate General in Christchurch also held a mourning ceremony, attended by representatives of the local Chinese community, to pay respects to the quake victims.
Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger laid a wreath on behalf of Christchurch at the base of the memorial wall, with the wider community invited to lay floral tributes after the ceremony concluded.
The earthquake and aftershocks caused substantial destruction to Christchurch in 2011. Statistics showed more than 1,200 commercial buildings were destroyed, and around 90 percent of residential houses were damaged to varying degrees.
It was estimated that the total cost for the reconstruction work would exceed 40 billion NZ dollars (22.97 billion U.S. dollars), or approximately 10 percent of New Zealand's gross domestic product. ■