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Chile quake toll mounts to 700 and rising

Monday, March 01, 2010
SANTIAGO: Rescuers are hunting for survivors of an earthquake that hit Chile, killing at least 700 people.

Half the victims died in a tsunami that struck Concepcion on Saturday –an area that has now been hit with a succession of aftershocks.

President Michelle Bachelet said the country faced ‘a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort’ for Chile to recover.

At least 60 people in the western town of Concepcion were trapped when their 15-storey tower block collapsed.

A full 24 hours later, only 16 people had been pulled out alive and six bodies had been recovered.

‘It’s very difficult working in the dark with aftershocks, and inside it’s complicated. The apartments are totally destroyed. You have to work with great caution,’ said rescuer Paulo Klein.

More than 500,000 homes were destroyed in the 8.8 magnitude quake and 2million people are thought to have been made homeless.

Most people are choosing to sleep out in the open through fear of buildings collapsing.

Meanwhile, the government imposed a curfew in Concepcion and the Maule region in a bid to stop looting.

Police used water cannons and tear gas to scatter people who forced open the doors of a supermarket in Concepcion, hauling away everything from nappies to dehydrated milk to a kitchen stove.

The town’s mayor, Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, said the situation was getting ‘out of control’ due to shortages of basic supplies.

‘We’ve got a very complicated situation and the people feel very vulnerable,’ she added. In San Pedro, others cleared out a shopping mall, two ATMs were broken into, a bank was robbed and a supermarket emptied.

‘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.’

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