WELLINGTON, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Life in the New Zealand capital was returning to normal Tuesday as the aftershocks from two strong quakes at the weekend continued.
Some government departments, businesses and educational institutions remained closed as engineers continued to check buildings and assess quake damage.
"The capital is in good shape and open for business," Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said in a statement.
Road, rail, bus and road traffic were returning to normal weekday flows after many city center workers stayed at home on Monday.
"Many workers will be returning to offices today and in many cases they will find no problems. In other cases, they will be spending much of the day cleaning up we all know there have been reports of ceiling tiles collapsing, shelves tipping over and other damage," said Wade-Brown.
Some of the building damage had yet to be reported to the city council, she said.
Mesh fencing, barriers, warning signs and security guards were keeping pedestrians away from the facades of affected buildings.
An initial visual inspection of almost 2,500 buildings in the central business district by council building inspectors and engineers found about 35 buildings that were externally damaged, Wade-Brown said Monday.
Most of the damage was minor, mainly broken windows and cracked or broken masonry, resulting in fallen debris and potential danger to passers-by.
Two severe quakes struck Wellington on Sunday, both of them centered about 30 km east of Seddon at the top of the South Island, The first was a 5.8-magnitude quake about 19 km deep at 7:17 a.m. and the second a 6.5-magnitude quake about 17 km deep at 5:09 p.m., followed by magnitude-5.2 aftershock minutes later.
Hundreds of aftershocks, some of them strong, have continued to rattle Wellington.
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