At least five dead after earthquake off northern Chile

Northern Chile was shaken by a magnitude 8.2 earthquake late last night, triggering a tsunami warning and killing five people, interior minister Rodrigo Penailillo said.

The quake struck at 9pm local time 95km (59 miles) off the coast from the city of Iquique at a depth of 20km, according to the US Geological Survey.

Four men and one woman were killed by heart attacks or falling debris, Mr Penailillo said on national television. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from the coast along the length of the country, causing traffic jams on the routes to higher ground, while emergency services ordered shipping to weigh anchor and move away from the shoreline.

The local power distributors in the northern cities of Arica and Iquique reported power outages in emailed statements. “At the beginning it was chaotic as people started evacuating in cars, which is not allowed,” said Justin Sturrock, a resident in the northern city of Antofagasta. “The highway is blocked and there are traffic jams everywhere.”

The tsunami warning was followed by waves of up to 2 metres, emergency services reported. The government expects to maintain the evacuation order until at least 5.30am, Mr Penailillo said, while lifting the tsunami alert in the far south of the country.

While the quake caused some landslides and triggered at least one fire in Iquique, water and electricity supplies continued as normal in many areas, Television Nacional reported. A church tower in the town of Huara collapsed after the tremor, the local mayor Carlos Silva told TVN.

The government sent extra police to Iquique to help maintain order, Mr Penailillo said. More than 300 convicts had escaped in the city, he said.

There was an attempt at looting in the port of Iquique, regional governor Gonzalo Prieto told Radio Cooperativa. Air force troops were bolstering police who were guarding supermarkets and gas stations in the region, he said.

Iquique has seen a series of tremors over the past few weeks and a larger earthquake was not a surprise, Bruce Tresgrave, a geophysicist with the USGS, said on Bloomberg TV. “Chile is actually quite well prepared for tsunamis,” he said. “There is always the possibility of communications failure.”

An earthquake off the coast of southern Chile in February 2010 killed about 500 people and caused $30 billion in damage and losses.