A massive earthquake that struck Chile killed around 350 people in the coastal town of Constitucion, which was also hit by a tsunami.
Television images from the fishing port of Constitucion, about 350km southwest of the capital Santiago, showed houses destroyed by the quake and a tsunami, which had washed large fishing boats onto land and flipped over cars.
President Michelle Bachelet said at least 708 people had been killed and called for calm as people desperate for food and water looted stores in some areas worst hit by Saturday's 8.8-magnitude quake.
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 number one copper producer and one of Latin America's most stable economies.
A lack of water, food and fuel sharpened the hardship for hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by the quake and widespread disruption to the power supply threatened to hamper Chilean industry's recovery.
In the hard-hit city of Concepcion, about 500km 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.
Two million people in Chile were affected by the earthquake, said President Michelle Bachelet, who added that it would take officials several days to evaluate the ‘enormous quantity of damage.’
Crushed cars, fallen power lines and rubble from wrecked buildings littered the streets of Concepcion, which has 670,000 inhabitants.
A string of strong aftershocks have rocked the country and a strong one shook buildings in Santiago early today.
Thousands of Concepcion residents camped out in tents or makeshift shelters, fearing fresh tremors.
The government faces the task of helping rebuild an estimated half a million homes that were severely damaged as well as hundreds of buckled roads and collapsed bridges.
The quake has raised a daunting first challenge for billionaire Sebastian Pinera, who was elected Chile's president in January in a shift to the political right and who takes office in two weeks.
‘We're preparing ourselves for an additional task, a task that wasn't part of our governing plan: assuming responsibility for rebuilding our country,’ the incoming president said.
‘It's going to be a very big task and we're going to need resources.’
The economic damage could be between $15 billion and $30 billion, risk assessor Eqecat said.
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.
Government officials said the copper industry had enough stocks to meet its commitments despite a production shutdown at two major mines due to the quake.
Diesel imports were stepped up after damage forced the closure of two oil refineries.
The quake triggered tsunami waves that 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.
Quake registered in Ireland
Seismic activity relating to the earthquake was picked up by a monitoring station in Co Wicklow.
Tom Blake, experimental officer with the School of Cosmic Physics run by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, said the earthquake was one of the most powerful on record.
‘Without a shadow of a doubt it is one of the most powerful recorded. Bear in mind the strongest ever recorded was 9.6, this is 8.8.’
‘The 9.6 event occurred in 1960 and that started the whole movement towards tsunami alert systems across the Pacific.’
Mr Blake said the geographic region was known for very powerful earthquakes. ‘It is where you have two plates hitting off each other.’
The Institute started seismic monitoring on behalf of the State in 1978 and will increase the number of monitoring stations from two to six this year.
Its outreach programme, the Irish National Seismic Network, has measuring equipment in 50 schools.
