New Zealand authorities have imposed a state of emergency to coordinate recovery operations in the country’s second biggest city Christchurch after a major earthquake ripped through there early on Saturday morning.

No deaths have been reported but two men have been seriously injured.

The quake – which measured around seven on the Richter scale – crushed cars, damaged roads and wrecked buildings.

The country’s Director of Civil Defence John Hamilton said looters have added to the misery.

The tremors were felt from afar.

South African expatriate Clare Baxter lives in Greymont, around 200 kilometres away from Christchurch.

“I woke up from a dead sleep. I actually thought someone was attacking us. I thought someone was shaking my bed to try and wake me up. I started screaming and I just saw my bed moving. I started panicking and my husband had to calm me down and tell me that it was just a tremor,” she said.

(Edited by Deshnee Subramany)