The official death toll for Chile’s devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami jumped on Sunday to 708, President Michelle Bachelet told journalists here.
The toll is expected to rise, she said after a meeting with top emergency officials, as “there are a growing number of missing persons”.
At least 541 of the deaths were in the Maule region some 300km south of capital, the epicentre of the earthquake that struck central Chile early on Saturday, leaving entire towns cut off from rescuers with roads and bridges crumpled.
In the country’s second city of Concepcion, close to the quake epicentre, recovery attempts were being focussed on rescuing survivors trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings.
The shift in tectonic plates beneath the ocean floor also unleashed tsunami waves on the Chilean coastline, impacting the dozens of beach towns packed with revellers on one of the last weekends of summer.
The mayor of the devastated second city of Concepcion pleaded urgently for help as rescuers with thermal detection equipment hunted 100 people believed trapped in a 15-story apartment block that lay flopped on its side.
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