Alison Chung,
Sky News Online

More than 120 people have been killed after a huge earthquake struck the Chilean coast, which triggered a tsunami and sparked warnings for 53 countries.

Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet has declared a “state of catastrophe” following the most powerful quake to hit the nation for half a century.

It measured a significant 8.8 on the Richter scale and struck at 03:34am (06:34am UK time). The epicentre was at a depth of 22 miles.

The director of the National Emergency Office said the number of people killed was not expected to rise dramatically from the current total.

She added that it will take at least three days to assess the full extent of the damage.

The massive tremor unleashed a tsunami measuring 7.7ft that crashed onto the coastal town of Talcahuano.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said at least 10 other coastal towns had been hit by towering waves.

Debris and power cables lie in the middle of the street in Santiago

The quake struck near to the Maule region where the president said there were more than 80 deaths.

Communications were down in the area, making it difficult to assess the full extent of the damage there.

The epicentre was also only 70 miles from Chile’s second biggest city Concepcion, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river.

In Concepcion, homes and bridges collapsed, buildings were engulfed in flames, and trucks plunged into big cracks in the ground.

Injured people lay in the streets or on stretchers – and reports said some residents had looted pharmacies and other businesses in the chaos.

President Bachelet said a huge wave hit Chile’s remote Robinson Crusoe Island, part of the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, and aid ships had been sent there.

Predicted times for when tsunami could hit (Australia in bottom left corner)

Tsunami warnings have been issued for South American nations as well Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Russia and many Pacific islands.

The quake shook the Chilean capital Santiago for about a minute and a half in the early hours of the morning and caused some buildings to collapse.

In the moments after the quake, people streamed onto the streets of the city, hugging each other and crying.

There were also power cuts and phones lines were down in the city, which is about 200 miles away from the epicentre.

Several big aftershocks later hit the south-central region, including one with a magnitude of 6.9.

In Santiago, the international airport was forced to close, a highway bridge collapsed and chunks of concrete fell from buildings.

Marco Vidal was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza Santiago hotel when the quake struck.

He said: “All the things start to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the floor. And it was moving like from south to north. I felt terrified.”

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 are 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.

People gather on a street in Santiago after the earthquake

“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.”

President Bachelet said parts of the country were without basic services and called for calm. She advised people to remain at home to avoid road accidents.

Bruce Presgrave, from the US Geological Survey, told Sky News that an earthquake of more than magnitude 8 can cause widespread damage.

“Earthquakes of this size can cause substantial damage and casualties over a fairly wide area,” he said.

“This is much bigger than the Haiti earthquake but is in a more sparsely populated area.”

View 8.8 Magnitude Quake in a larger map

He went on: “The latest quake is along what would be considered part of the Pacific ‘ring of fire’. It’s a very active seismic zone.

“It’s just north of the area along the Pacific coast of Chile where the largest earthquake recorded in the 20th century occurred.

“That was the 9.5 magnitude event in 1960. There was substantial damage and casualties in Chile. It also produced a Pacific-wide tsunami that did damage and caused casualties in places such as Hawaii and as far as Japan.”

In that incident, about 140 people were killed in Japan, 61 in Hawaii and 32 in the Philippines. The tsunami was about 3ft to 13ft (1-4 metres) in height, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.