Chile Quake Death Toll
Over 700
SANTIAGO - More than 700 people have been
reportedly killed in Chile after a
8.8-magnitude megaquake hit the country on
Saturday, the national emergency office
said.
The Chilean National Emergency Office (Onemi)
said earlier on Saturday that the death toll
from the massive earthquake in the morning
was 214. The country's national emergency
office said the latest figure has risen to
more than 700.
The tremor, one of the world's most powerful
quakes in decades, rocked Chile at 3:34 a.m.
local time (0634 GMT) on Saturday, knocking
down homes and hospitals and triggering a
tsunami that rolled menacingly across the
Pacific.
The epicenter was only 115 km from
Concepcion, Chile's second largest city with
a population of 670,000.
According to Sergio Barrientos, science
chief of the Seismology Institute of the
University of Chile, the quake was "50 times
bigger than the one of Haiti."
A rescue team on Saturday saved at least 22
people from an apartment building of 15
floors in Concepcion, where millions of
people were affected by the quake.
Meanwhile, countries and regions across the
Pacific Ocean are on alert against tsunami
triggered by the earthquake.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a
major tsunami alert Sunday for its Pacific
coast after the powerful earthquake struck
Chile.
Hundreds of residents in the east coast of
Mindanao in southern Philippines moved to
higher grounds due to the tsunami alert
issued after the quake in Chile.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Amend Balio
told Xinhua Sunday they are confirming where
residents in other parts of the Philippines
had been evacuated.
Big waves hit the coastal area in the
village of Kidalapong, forcing at least 100
people to evacuate to higher grounds,
Inquierer.net quoted Victorina Mendez,
police chief of Malita in Davao Del Sur, as
saying.
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