DEATH TOLL:CONCEPCIÓN – The massive earthquake that struck Chile killed about 350 people in the coastal town of Constitución, 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 Constitución.
Television images from the fishing port about 350km (220 miles) southwest of the capital, Santiago, showed houses destroyed by the quake and a tsunami, which washed fishing boats on to 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.
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 Concepción, about 500km (310 miles) 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. – (Reuters)