WELLINGTON, (Reuters) – A major earthquake hit New  Zealand’s second biggest city Christchurch last night,  bringing down power lines, ripping up roads and wrecking  building facades, but authorities reported no deaths.

Authorities declared a formal civil defence state of  emergency to coordinate recovery operations in the city, which  has a population of about 350,000 people, after facades  collapsed into streets, crushing cars and blocking roads.

Two men suffered serious injuries and police closed off the  central business district.

The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1 and a depth of 10 kms  (6 miles), hitting the South Island city and a large surrounding  area of farms at around 4.35 a.m. local time (1635 GMT Friday).

“There’s a lot of damage that I’ve been able to observe in  the central city area, mainly of the old brick and masonry  buildings, a number of those have got walls that have fallen  into the street,” Christchurch mayor Bob Parker told Radio New  Zealand.