More than 140 killed in Chile quake

SANTIAGO - One of the most powerful earthquakes in decades rocked Chile Saturday, leaving more than 140 people dead and triggering a tsunami alert across the Pacific basin.

Hundreds of people were missing and feared trapped under the rubble of buildings which buckled under the force of the magnitude 8.8 quake, the worst to hit the South American nation since 1960.

The earthquake occurred at 3.34 a.m. (0634 GMT), some 90 km northeast of Concepcion, a city of 630,000 in Chile’s central coastal region. It also caused damage in the capital Santiago, 320 km north of the epicentre, affecting buildings, roads and closing the international airport.

The Pacific region was bracing for a tidal wave, with Japan, New Zealand and Hawaii going on alert. On Hawaii, sirens wailed and officials began moving people from low-lying areas to higher ground.

Coastal areas of Chile and neighbouring Peru escaped the tsunami, but a wall of water swept across the island of Robinson Crusoe, 670 km off the Chilean coast.

A pilot who flew over the area reported that a school, the mayor’s office and beachside apartments were damaged. Three people were reported missing.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet declared “a state of catastrophe” in the worst-hit region south of Santiago. Sebastian Pinera, who takes over from her as head of state on March 11, appealed for solidarity.

“The earthquake is a heavy blow for Chile,” the conservative president-elect said.

By mid-afternoon, officials put the death toll at 147, but said the figure was expected to rise as searchers pulled out more bodies from the rubble. In Conception, 150 people were feared trapped in the debris of a 14-floor apartment block.

Most people were asleep when the quake hit. Hundreds of thousands ran into the streets in panic and camped out overnight, fearing more damage from powerful aftershocks.

“We ran into the street in our pyjamas. Outside, in the darkness, the earth shook so violently that we could barely keep our balance,” one witness told DPA.

The capital’s modern international airport was knocked out of operation and will remain closed to incoming and outgoing flights for at least three days. The city’s underground rail network was also closed.

Overturned cars littered motorway flyovers, which buckled and crumbled during the quake.

Power lines were down, water supplies were cut and burst gas pipes raised fears of explosions. Internet communications were also cut and the mobile phone network badly disrupted.

In Concepcion, where according to television reports there was hardly a street without damaged buildings, the extent of the devastation remain unclear hours after the quake struck.

The offices of the region government were reported to have been destroyed and the walls of the city’s prison collapsed, leading to fears that convicts might have escaped.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said a woman standing on the corner of city street, a woollen blanket draped over her shoulder.

Chilean television showed footage of collapsed hospitals, buildings on fire and wrecked bridges. But solidly built high-rise buildings in Santiago were relatively unscathed by the quake and the more than 20 after shocks that followed.

The European Union granted three million euros ($4.1 million) in immediate aid. “We stand ready to do whatever it takes to help the Chilean authorities at this time of need,” EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed condolences for the victims and the UN “is on standby to offer rapid assistance to the Chilean government and people”.

President Barack Obama also expressed his condolences and said the US “have resources to deploy should the Chilean people need our help”.

A forward-planning team from Germany’s THW civil-defence agency left by air Saturday evening for the quake zone.

The quake was 50 times more powerful than the one which claimed more than 200,000 lives in the Caribbean nation of Haiti Jan 12, said the head of the University of Santiago’s Seismological Institute, Sergio Barrientos.

The worst earthquake to hit Chile was in 1960 when a 9.5 magnitude quake claimed 1,600 lives.