IQUIQUE (Chile), June 15: Boulders littered city streets and highways in northern Chile on Tuesday after a 7.9-magnitude quake caused landslides and wrecked homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring 200. The quake on Monday evening in Chile’s top mining district also cut off power and burst water mains in and around the port cities of Arica, Iquique and Antofagasta.
Chile’s Emergency Bureau ONEMI said most of the quake’s victims were killed in landslides. One victim was a 9-month-old baby.
“According to official information we have 11 dead reported,” said ONEMI spokesman Mariano Gonzalez.
Television images showed streets littered with giant rocks in Iquique, which has a population of about 140,000, and dozens of collapsed adobe homes in nearby towns.
“Everybody was terrified, people were running everywhere and the air was all dusty,” 36-year-old Claudia Herrera said.
The earthquake damaged or destroyed most of the buildings in Herrera’s village of Huara, a hamlet in the mountains near Iquique.—Reuters
