Emergency officials gave the grim news that they could find no signs of life in the wreckage of office towers, churches and homes after the 6.3-magnitude tremor laid waste to central Christchurch and some of its suburbs.

"All over the world when we see disasters like this, we see miracle stories of people being pulled out, days and in some cases weeks after the event," Prime Minister John Key told TV3.

"That does not mean that there can't and won't be people trapped in buildings," he said. "We can't give up hope, but we also need to be realistic."

Police said 98 bodies had been retrieved from the rubble and 226 people were listed as missing. "We're gravely concerned about those individuals," district commander Dave Cliff told reporters.

Rescuers ruled out anyone being found alive at the collapsed CTV building, which housed a TV station and a busy language school for foreign students, and where as many as 120 people may have perished.

They also abandoned hope of finding survivors at Christchurch's landmark cathedral, which lost its spire and where up to 22 people could be buried.

Police released the first names of quake victims, listing four people including two babies aged five months and nine months.

But police insisted hundreds of search specialists including foreign teams, with sniffer dogs, purpose-built cameras and listening devices, were still focused on finding survivors, 24 hours after last pulling anyone out alive.

"If people are alive and trapped we're doing everything humanly possible, with a huge range of people from right around the world," Cliff said.

He also issued a sharp warning to criminals after about a dozen cases of post-quake looting in Christchurch, saying police patrols would "saturate" the city and its suburbs, and strictly enforce a curfew in the centre.

Hundreds crowded Christchurch's airport, desperate for a flight out of the city of 390,000.

"It's crazy, nerve-wracking, my nerves are just... I've just been shaking all day, I haven't eaten," said Vanessa Burgess, who was camped out at the terminal with her two young children.

Up to 30 quake survivors were rescued on the first night but only a handful emerged from the wreckage on Wednesday.

Speaking to the Seven Network on her mobile phone, Anne Vos had gripped millions of TV viewers with her account of being trapped in the mangled Pyne Gould office building before she was rescued late Wednesday.

"I'm hoping they are going to get me out soon because I have been here for so long and it's dark and horrible," Vos, who was recovering in hospital Thursday, had said.

Police Minister Judith Collins said she had seen one corpse retrieved from the Pyne Gould building on Thursday.

"It was just a scene of utter devastation, I've never seen anything like it," Collins said of the wrecked central business district.

The language school based in the six-storey CTV building, which was razed to the ground, said 48 students and staff were missing or unaccounted for, and listed a further 42 as "status unknown".

Japan said at least 26 of its citizens who had attended the school were missing. Twenty Chinese students were unaccounted for, state television in China reported.

Twelve Filipinos were believed to have been inside the CTV building, along with a South Korean brother and sister who were also listed as missing. Their father arrived in Christchurch Thursday to search for the pair.

"My son and daughter must be alive," said 57-year-old Yoo Sang-cheol, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

"I hear that some of the injured people have not yet been identified, so I'm going to go to the hospitals immediately," he said. "I'm certain that my son and daughter will be among them," he said as he burst into tears.

Two British nationals are also known to have died, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said, adding that next of kin have been notified.

Japanese search-and-rescue experts were on the scene and combing the CTV site in the shadow of the listing, 26-storey Grand Chancellor Hotel, Christchurch's tallest building, which was at risk of collapse.

"This is not just New Zealand's tragedy, it is an international tragedy," New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said.

Power has been restored to much of the city, but many people remain without water. Thousands of residents, rattled by numerous tremors in recent months, have been staying with friends and relatives elsewhere.

Christchurch was hit by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in September, which damaged 100,000 buildings but miraculously caused no deaths. New Zealand has not suffered such a disaster since 256 people died in a 1931 quake.

burs/sls/apj

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