Rescue teams in New Zealand continued to search for survivors after a powerful earthquake rocked downtown Christchurch, killing scores of people, toppling buildings and leaving others trapped beneath piles of concrete. Prime Minister John Key told reporters on Wednesday that at least 75 people have died and hundreds are still missing. The Prime Minister said, he will urge the nation's parliament to declare a state of emergency for all of New Zealand. The 6.3-magnitude quake struck Christchurch during the lunchtime rush on Tuesday. The quake toppled buildings onto buses, buckled streets, forced the collapse of a cathedral spire and cut power for most of the city. Rescuers worked overnight under floodlights pulling a large number of people from collapsed buildings. According to a police significant numbers of people were trapped inside two downtown buildings that suffered major collapse. Twenty-two people were pulled from the PPG building on Cambridge Terrace and eight people have been rescued from the Canterbury TV building, at Madras and Cashel streets, but a large number are still unaccounted for, police said. Meanwhile, police today abandoned hope of finding survivors at the CTV building, adding foreign students were likely among the dead. Police gave no details on the possible nationalities of those trapped inside the building but at least 23 Japanese are among the 300 missing. On its website King's Education College said the largest number of its students came from the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, China and Thailand.