UPDATED 5.58pm The Reading Cinema carpark in Courtenay Central in Wellington is "at imminent risk of collapse" 

This follows and announcement that the Government has launched an investigation into the failure of relatively new buildings - including Statistics House -  following Monday’s quake.

MORE: 99 percent of Wellington's buildings functional, mayor says 

Regional fire commander Brendan Nally told Newshub firefighters were evacuating the building, as well as others nearby.​ Tory St, which the car park backs onto, was also cordoned off between Wakefield and Courtenay Place. 

"Due to the high number of people and the risk to life here, New Zealand Fire Service and our urban search and rescue teams have been tasked to clear the building as quickly as possible.

"There is no damage to any other building, the engineers have advised there is a risk of collapse and that is quite a significant risk,"

"The carpark in question is mostly vacant but the buildings around it definitely have people in them so that's why you see the weight of our resources that we've applied to this task."

As well as the cinema and multi-level carpark, the building houses a food court. 

Structural engineers and fire service staff were surveying the building. 

Announcing the investigation today, Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith said the magnitude 7.8 tremor had tested the seismic strength of many of Wellington’s multi-storey buildings.

“This investigation will focus on Statistics House to understand its performance and where there may be wider lessons for improved design,” he said.

Parts of Courtenay Place in Wellington's CBD have been evacuated due to concerns about structural damage.

Emergency services are at a car park on Tory Street, between Wakefield St and Courtenay Place, with concerns about a building with issues of "structural stability".

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester informed media this afternoon that most of the thousands of buildings in the city had stood up to the test of the earthquake, including most of the 600 buildings that had been identified as 'earthquake prone', Lester said. 

At a press conference at Parliament, Smith said Wellington buildings performed well overall during the quakes.

The worst-damaged building, at 61 Molesworth St, was known to be earthquake-prone, he said.

“The reason I’m asking officials to look at the Stats Building is because it’s a relatively new design building, and there has been a collapse of the floor in one corner.”

The five-storey building on Wellington’s waterfront was built in 2005.

Smith also emphasised that the type of earthquake which struck on Monday was particularly strong for properties between five and 10 storeys.

Another type of earthquake could severely impact one or two-storey properties, he said.

“I am concerned about the commentary of some people, for instance on Cuba Street that had one or two-storey earthquake prone buildings, who have now got the view that their building is quite safe because they did not suffer significant damage from Monday.”

Centreport chairmain Lachie Johnstone said the BNZ, Customhouse and Shed 39 buildings had been given the all clear by engineers and initial assessments into the damage to the Statistics NZ building had been conducted. 

Reports the building had pancaked were not correct, he said.

"There has been a situation were the floor sections of the building have separated away from the beams within the building" in isolated areas.

Johnstone said it happened in isolated areas of the building, and it's fortunate it occurred in the middle of the night.

Engineers were making assessments into what to had gone wrong, but enquiries would take weeks.

Engineers had cleared the building for staff members to remove their belongings. 

Most of the thousands of buildings in the city had stood up to the test of the earthquake, including most of the 600 buildings that had been identified as 'earthquake prone', Lester said. 

The Townhall was also awaiting assessments, but there were no indications from the outside it was severely damaged. 

"The questions we need to ask are: has the building failed? Or has what nature has thrown at the building been too much for it?"

The Archives New Zealand building in Wellington is closed to the public following Monday's earthquake.

A statement on Archives NZ's website said staff had been evacuated today after a visual report by a structural engineer.

There is no cordon in place.

A section of The Terrace in Wellington has been cordoned off after some pieces of debris fell from a building earlier.

The cordon is about two car lengths and is set up near 55 The Terrace.

A nearby shop owner said the cordon had been in place since this morning.

There are no emergency services currently on site.