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| Situation Update No. 3 Ref.no.: EQ-20100227-25098-CHL
Situation Update No. 3
On 2010-02-27 at 09:24:53 [UTC]
Event: Earthquake
Location: Chile Región del Maule 42 km W Cauquenes
Number of Deads: 6 person(s)
Situation: At least six people have been killed after a huge earthquake struck the Chilean coast, causing buildings to collapse in the capital Santiago and triggering a tsunami. The quake, which measured 8.8 on the Richter scale, shook the city for about a minute and a half. There were also power cuts in the capital, which is about 200 miles away from the quake's epicentre. That was close to the town of Maule, and happened at a depth of 36.9 miles. The epicentre was also 75 miles from Chile's second biggest city Concepcion, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced the death toll - and warned it could rise. She also said parts of the country were without basic services and called for calm. Simon Shalders, who lives in Santiago, told Sky News: "There was a lot of movement. The houses were really shaking, walls were moving backwards and forwards, and doors were swinging open. "The power is still out here. There's quite a few choppers flying around in Santiago I suppose checking out the worst-affected areas." He added: "The new buildings in Santiago are designed to withstand fairly strong quakes and they probably held up pretty well. "Santiago has got a history of earthquakes and basically there's not a lot of old construction in Santiago because of these earthquakes. "They have fallen down and been rebuilt. They've all had their turns and they build them up again." |  | | | |
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