Concepcion, March 02: Chile called for international aid on Monday as the anguished calls of trapped quake survivors pierced the rubble and police had to arrest 160 looters for defying overnight curfews.
Troops deployed alongside police in Concepcion, the country’s second city and the worst-hit urban area, while the toll from Saturday’s 8.8-magnitude earthquake and the resulting tsunami that swept coastal towns rose to 711.
After touring the disaster zone, President-elect Sebastian Pinera said “the situation is worse than expected” and recounted hearing cries for help when he entered a collapsed building not yet reached by rescue teams.
Rescuers with heat sensors and sniffer dogs picked through the debris of shattered buildings in Concepcion and specially designed cameras showed three survivors trapped in the twisted ruins of a 15-story apartment block.
Eight bodies were pulled on Sunday from the giant building, knocked onto its back by the force of the quake, but rescuers said they were hopeful that survivors would be found.
“We’ll have to work with the precision of watchmakers,” said fire chief Juan Carlos Subercaseaux. “May God help us”.
Aftershocks rattled shell-shocked citizens—127 since the quake at last count—and Pinera said he had seen sick people sleeping out in the open under the open sky.
Deputy interior minister Patricio Rosende said one person was shot and killed in Concepcion as police and the army clamped down on rampant looting overnight, making 160 arrests. Local media said the shooting resulted after an altercation between looters.
Rosende said the government had purchased all the food in the city’s big supermarkets so that they could be distributed for free, and a barge and two Chilean air force planes would arrive later in the day with more supplies.
The scale of the devastation was still being discovered, with seaside towns and villages engulfed by massive waves from a tsunami sparked by the massive quake, which struck at 3.34 am.
State television reported that more than 300 bodies had been found in the swamped fishing village of Constitucion, where survivors stared in disbelief at the seaweed clinging to the remains of their homes.
-Agencies