Awwal 28, 1432 H/March 3, 2011, SPA -- Rescuers officially gave up hope of finding more survivors of New Zealand's devastating earthquake, saying Thursday that no one trapped in rubble when the disaster struck nine days earlier could still be alive, as AP reported. The news was a blow to the families of around 200 people listed as missing, many of whom clung to faltering hopes for good news despite more than a week of silence from beneath the piles of debris that still litter the city of Christchurch. «We now face the reality that there is no chance that anyone could have survived this long,» Civil Defense Emergency Management national controller John Hamilton told a news conference Thursday. «Sadly, there becomes a point where the response effort shifts in focus from rescue to body recovery,» he said. «We have now reached that point.» Maurice Gardiner, whose sister was thought to be inside an office block that collapsed in the quake and who has not been heard from since, said he accepted the official decision but that he had not given up all hope. «Obviously I would like my sister back with us _ at this stage it's not to be,» he said. «They've said that miracles can happen, so I'm going along with what they say.»
