The tremor shook the capital, Santiago, for a minute and a half early this morning, bringing down telephone and power lines. The Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, said six people were killed and more deaths were possible.
"We have had a huge earthquake," Bachelet said. "We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately. Without a doubt, with an earthquake of this magnitude, there will be more deaths."
The Pacific tsunami warning centre said the quake generated a tsunami that could cause destruction along nearby shores "and could also be a threat to more distant coasts". It issued a tsunami warning for Chile and Peru, while Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Antarctica are also on alert.
The quake centred 200 miles south-west of the Santiago at a depth of 22 miles, according to the US Geological Survey. It warned that an earthquake of magnitude 8 or above could cause "tremendous damage". The quake that devastated Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, in January was magnitude 7.0.
The epicentre was 70 miles from Concepcion, Chile's second largest city, with a population of around 670,000.
The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on 22 May 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.
Source:guardian.co.uk/
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