Chile earthquake: troops struggling to keep control in ravaged city

By Aislinn Laing Published: 1:17PM GMT 02 Mar 2010

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Its second-largest city of Concepcíon resembled a fight section in places as infantry armoured crew carriers rumbled by the streets and soldiers used rip gas and H2O cannons to diffuse the crowds.

Thick black fume and abandon were perceivable after looters set glow to dual supermarkets. One chairman and 160 people arrested as infantry and military clamped down on the disorder, that was replicated opposite alternative towns in the influenced zone.

Chile earthquake: family groups of British couples fright for reserve Chile earthquake: scientists urge tsunami fake warning Chile: infantry levy curfew to hindrance looting Chile earthquake: winemakers hindrance prolongation due to repairs Chile trembler repairs Farmers onslaught to squad up opposite supermarkets

Meanwhile, rescuers in Concepcíon fought to lift the last superfluous survivors from the rubble of a 40-storey construction that collapsed.

The UN"s charitable coordination bureau (OCHA) pronounced Chile had asked for margin hospitals, mobile bridges, communications apparatus and mess comment teams.

President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who is due to take energy on Mar 11, toured the area and pronounced the incident was "worse than expected". US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to arrive after currently to plead assist needs.

In coastal areas, stories began to arise of the extinction caused by the tsunami that followed the 8.8-magnitude earthquake.

Eyewitnesses told of 3 metre-high waves unconditional afar houses, people and in one case, a minibus carrying 40 holidaymakers who were perplexing to shun to higher ground.

A sum of 723 people are right away reliable passed following the upheaval one of the largest ever on jot down and a offer dual million people have been affected.

With 1.5m homes broken and stability aftershocks, most Chilean family groups have been forced to live outward underneath temporary tents and food, H2O and healing reserve are flourishing increasingly scarce.

Deputy interior apportion Patricio Rosende pronounced the supervision had purchased all the food in Concepcíon"s main shops so it could be distributed for free, and a boat and dual Chilean air force planes were approaching after with some-more supplies.

Another small craft bringing assist to the city crashed on Monday, murdering all 6 people on board, according to media reports.

Locals complained that military were guarding a little supermarkets that were still fully-stocked when people were going hungry.

"It would be excellent if they distributed things, or at slightest sole them to us," Carmen Norin, 42, added.

Police dismissed rip gas in an try to sunder a throng that descended on the Bigger supermarket and set glow to the construction after they were prevented from entering.

One proffer was harmed as the roof tiles collapsed and firefighters discovered an additional man who emerged from the construction screaming and lonesome in flames.

Looters additionally raided a glow hire seeking for H2O and gasoline.

"We assimilate that people need to eat, but looting hospitals and clinics ... How can we offer the people?" pronounced Conception glow dialect arch Jaime Jara.

A night curfew in between 9pm and 6am remained in force and 7,000 infantry are reported to be on the belligerent at present.

Residents pronounced they had still be forced to organize their own security patrols, claiming that restrained from the circuitously Manzano jail were additionally on the run.

"Government assistance has been so delayed to arrive," pronounced Caroline Contreras, a 36-year-old teacher.

"The soldiers usually arrived and haven"t been means to carry out the situation. The neighbours where I live are organising to urge themselves since people are starting to rob houses."

While dual British couples who were feared blank have right away done hit with their families, there is still no word from Tina Cadwallader Lopes, her Portuguese father Wallace Lopes, and their dual young kids Isabella, 10, and Joshua, five.

They were staying in the review of Pichilemu and were listed as blank along with Perran "Pez" Hall, 31, a surfer from Nancledra, Cornwall, on the website of The Surfer"s Cottage residence.

Further north, a organisation of 40 retirees on legal holiday at a strand campground in the encampment of Pelluhue attempted to rush the more advanced call by minibus, usually to be dragged out to sea along with houses and vegetation.

Firefighters pronounced on Monday that five of their bodies had been recovered and the rest are still missing.

Most residents in Pelluhue, where 300 homes were destroyed, knew about the hazard of tsunamis and ran along a well-marked depletion route.

One, Claudio Escalona, 43, fled his home with his mother and daughters, ages 4 and six.

"We ran by the top piece of town, yelling, "Get out of your homes!"" he said. "About twenty mins after came 3 waves, dual of them huge, about 6 meters (18 feet) each, and a third even bigger. That one went in to everything."

"You could listen to the screams of children, women, everyone. There were the screams, and afterwards a extensive silence."

In the encampment of Dichato, usually south of Pichilemu, teenagers celebration on the beach carried the warning when they saw a horseshoe-shaped brook dull around one hour after the quake.

As they ran by the streets screaming, military assimilated them utilizing megaphones.

As the H2O rose, it carried houses purify off their foundations and built cars 3 high in the streets.

"The nautical air wave pronounced there wouldn"t be a tsunami," pronounced survivor Rogilio Reyes.

Dichato Mayor Eduardo Aguilera pronounced 49 people were blank and 800 homes were destroyed. By Monday, fourteen bodies had been found.

The fishing village, that was formerly renouned with tourists, is right away cut off by highway and residents are entering their fourth day but any outward aid.