However, the deaths were fake, the injuries painted on and the earthquake response part of a Red Cross Dunedin Response Team exercise.
The team of 20 spent 24 hours being put through their paces by team controller and Dunedin police Senior Constable Niall Shepherd The exercise was a chance to put into practice the training the team undertook throughout the year and to simulate the stress of working during a disaster, he said.
The team was only allowed a short sleep over the two days in order to make the conditions as realistic as possible.
The group's weekend started with aerial observation on the Taieri Plain to try to simulate what a crashed plane would look like from the air, followed by an evacuation scenario with three patients stuck on Quarantine Is, in Otago Harbour; a search and rescue at Okia Reserve, on Otago Peninsula, a cliff rescue at Cape Saunders and team-building exercises at Hooper's Inlet.
At the Christian Outreach Centre, on Dowling St, more than 50 people lay in various states of fake injury waiting to be rescued.
One man was pinned under the lectern, another under a ladder and others were in shock.
The response team is a group of volunteers who are called on to assist the community during natural disasters, severe weather, search and rescue operations or any other instance where emergency service teams may require their assistance.
The 24-hour exercise is held annually.
