what date did the earthquake in christchurch happen?
2011 Christchurch earthquake
entailment
 The earthquake produced severe shaking that registered VIII on the Mercalli scale in and around the city of Christchurch , destroying some buildings and causing additional damage to many structures affected by previous earthquakes . The damaged tower of the historic Lyttelton Timeball Station collapsed before dismantling work could be completed . The earthquake downed phone lines and triggered widespread outages , which left around 54 @,@ 000 households without power . Rebuilding costs in Christchurch increased by NZ $ 6 billion ( US $ 4 @.@ 8 billion ) owing to the additional damage from the quake . Forty @-@ six people suffered injuries , and one elderly man died after being knocked unconscious . 

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 Despite the appeal , thousands of onlookers filled the street on Sunday morning of 5 August . Punctually at 8 am , a series of short explosions were heard , followed by another series a couple of seconds later . The building collapsed towards the north as planned , and the implosion manager from Controlled Demolition , Inc. was quoted as saying that " it went a bit further than I had hoped so I am lucky " . The explosions were heard around Christchurch . 

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 The English version of Wikipedia had an encyclopedia article dedicated to the earthquake by 2 : 03 PM , 12 minutes after the event , and it was mentioned in two other Wikipedia articles even earlier . 

entailment
 The earthquake and its precursor tremor struck during the afternoon near an extremely populated area , with most buildings in the area already left in precarious conditions by previous earthquakes . It affected roughly 400 @,@ 000 people directly , most of which were estimated to have experienced at least strong ( MM VI ) shaking . Hospital officials confirmed at least 46 injuries after its occurrence ; falling debris struck several people , while two others were left in critical condition . In the city centre , two workers had to be rescued from a collapsed church and were promptly hospitalised . The morning after , officials confirmed an elderly man had died after being knocked unconscious in a rest home when the earthquake struck . Mass casualties were avoided owing to a combination of building evacuations prompted by the weaker shock and an epicentre removed from populous areas . 

contradiction
 If the earthquake had occurred during the early morning while residents were asleep , rather than mid @-@ afternoon ( 1 : 52 pm local time ) , it could have been deadlier as housing in the epicentral area consisted chiefly of mud and brick . 
