A series of strong aftershocks rattled south-central Chile today, panicking residents nearly a week after one of the most powerful earthquakes on record rocked the area and killed hundreds of people.
The government of outgoing President Michelle Bachelet said it was revising faulty death toll figures after authorities mistakenly tallied scores of missing who later turned up alive.
In the ravaged city of Concepcion, the country's second largest, some people ran out of their houses or jumped out of the vehicles they have been sleeping in since their homes were destroyed as seven intense tremors shook the area today.
The strongest of the aftershocks was a magnitude 6.6.
Saturday's 8.8-magnitude quake, and a series of giant waves that followed, destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, wrecked bridges and roads, and cracked modern buildings in half in the capital, Santiago.
It also wreaked havoc on some of Chile's famous wineries and briefly shut down some of the world's richest copper mines.
The Chilean navy said there was no risk of tsunamis from the new aftershocks and people did not stray too far into the streets of Concepcion since the army had imposed a curfew until mid-day to control sporadic looting.
The government said yesterday the death toll, previously reported as 802, was unclear due to confusion over who was missing. Officials said they had identified 279 victims but were not sure how many bodies were unidentified.
Chile's two major newspapers said today the government had revised down its calculation of fatalities in the hard-hit Maule region to 316 from a previous 587.
Reuters