All Saudi students and their families are safe and fine in the New Zealand city of Christchurch following an earthquake that struck the city Thursday, Hassan Bin Talat Nazer, Saudi Ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, has said. The ambassador said that he made a phone call to the Saudi Consulate and the Cultural Attaché in the City of Auckland, New Zealand, who assured him that Saudi students and their families were safe and fine and that most of them were outside the city on their annual vacation. Meanwhile, aftershocks continued to rattle Christchurch. The unrelenting series of tremors, several stronger than magnitude 5.0, had the city on edge again 10 months after a devastating quake claimed 181 lives and destroyed much of the inner city. Emergency services were rushing to restore electricity and water supplies and an army of 2,000 volunteers was helping to clean up the worst-affected suburbs.
