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Residents in a coastal Chilean town inspect debris after the quake - Source: Reuters -
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A massive earthquake that struck Chile killed around 350 people
in the coastal town of Constitucion, which was also hit by a
tsunami, state television quoted emergency officials as
saying.
The death toll from Saturday's 8.8-magnitude quake already stood at
400 before news of the devastation in Constitucion.
Television images from the fishing port about 350 km southwest of
the capital Santiago showed houses destroyed by the quake and a
tsunami, which washed large fishing boats onto land and flipped
over cars.
There were similar scenes of devastation in Pelluhue, another
coastal town, where cars were tossed on top of shattered
houses.
People desperate for food and water ransacked stores in some
quake-stricken areas, raising speculation that the government would
use martial law to crack down on looters.
Hundreds of thousands of homes and some highways across central
Chile were seriously damaged by the quake, dealing a heavy blow to
infrastructure in the world's No. 1 copper producer and one of
Latin America's most stable economies.
A lack of water, food and fuel sharpened the hardship for the
hundreds of thousands of people left homeless, and widespread
disruption to the power supply threatened to hamper Chilean
industry's recovery.
In the hard-hit city of Concepcion, about 500 km south of Santiago,
about 60 people were feared to have been crushed to death in a
collapsed apartment block where rescuers worked through the night
to find survivors.
"We spent the whole night working, smashing through walls to find
survivors. The biggest problem is fuel, we need fuel for our
machinery and water for our people," Commander Marcelo Plaza
said.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a crowd of
looters carrying off food and electrical appliances from a
supermarket in Concepcion.
Television images showed people stuffing groceries and other
goods into shopping trolleys.
"People have gone days without eating," said Orlando Salazar, one
of the looters at the supermarket.
"The only option is to come here and get stuff for
ourselves."
Concepcion's mayor, Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, said the situation
was getting out of control due to shortages of basic supplies and
called for the national government to help.
"We need the army. We can't have people defending their own
possession because it will be the law of the strongest," she
said.
Aftershocks
President Michelle Bachelet said 2 million people were affected by
the 8.8-magnitude quake, adding that it would take several days to
evaluate the enormous quantity of damage.
The quake destroyed or damaged 1.5 million homes, buckled roads and
toppled bridges, posing a daunting reconstruction challenge for
President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who takes office in two
weeks.
Crushed cars, fallen power lines and rubble from wrecked buildings
littered the streets of Concepcion, which has about 670,000
inhabitants and lies 115 km southwest of the quake's
epicentre.
A string of strong aftershocks have rocked the country and one of
them rattled buildings in the capital, Santiago, early on
Sunday.
Thousands of Concepcion residents camped out in tents or
makeshift shelters, fearing fresh tremors could topple weakened
buildings.
The economic damage from the could be up to $42 billion, equivalent
to about 15 percent of gross domestic product, said Eqecat, a firm
that helps insurers model catastrophe risks.
Some economists predicted a deep impact on Chile's economy after
the quake damaged its industrial and agricultural sectors in the
worst-hit regions, possibly putting pressure on its currency.
Two major copper mines shut down by the quake were due to resume
operations on Sunday,
Chile's fourth-largest copper mine El Teniente, which accounts for
more than seven percent of national output, and the nearby Andina
mine were due to resume operations on Sunday but analysts feared
power outages could still curtail supplies from the world's No. 1
producer.
There was no information available on Sunday on two Anglo-American
mines where power outages have halted production.
State TV said that Santiago's airport had started to receive
international flights for the first time since the quake
struck.
The quake triggered tsunami waves that also killed at least four
people on Chile's Juan Fernandez islands and caused serious damage
to the port town of Talcahuano, flooding streets and lifting
fishing boats out of the sea.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Japan, New Zealand, the
Philippines and Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula were told
to evacuate ahead of the tsunami, and waves of 1.5 meters hit their
coastlines, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or
serious damage.
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