Pakistan team safe after 'terrifying' experience in Christchurch quack

Pakistan team manager Wasim Bari has described the experience felt by the team members of the national cricket squad during a 7.4 magnitude earthquake which struck Christchurch and its adjoining areas as a "terrifying" one.

Pakistan were in Nelson to play a three-day tour game before the first Test in Christchurch beginning from November 17.

"We are staying at a hotel in Nelson, where we were playing our tour match but today when the earthquake came it was a terrifying experience as everything was shaking badly and we were safely escorted out of the hotel," Bari was quoted as saying by the Dawn from New Zealand.

The team manager, however, insisted that the hotel staff took great care of them and quickly evacuated them from the seventh floor rooms and took them to a safe zone until the Tsunami warnings were over.

"Most of the players were in their rooms watching the India and England Test when it came, the quake was a powerful one and the windows and doors were banging around and it was shaking as we were rushed out. But everyone has settled down now and we also called up the women's team in Christchurch to find out if they were okay," the former Test captain said.

The Pakistan team manager informed that the team would reach Christchurch on Monday if the weather holds up.

Pakistan is in New Zealand for a two-test series, while the women's team is also there for a five match ODI series and are already three down in the rubber.

A Tsunami warning has been issued by the civil defence for the entire east coast and said the situation is being assessed by it with the assistance of scientific advisers and civil defence groups. It is reported that two people have been killed in the earthquakes and the aftershocks thereafter.