Thousands flee in face of tsunami

Parts of a church in Santiago came crashing to

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As rescuers pulled survivors from devastated towns in South America, authorities thousands of miles away braced themselves for huge waves that were crossed the ocean.

Three people were missing, feared dear, on the island of Robinson Crusoe off the coast of Chile after a huge wave from the tsunami covered half the village of San Juan Batista.

Tsunami warnings were in place yesterday as far away from the quake's epicentre as Alaska, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. In Samoa, Fiji, Easter Island and the Galapagos chain, residents were urged to head for high ground.

On Hawaii, the emergency klaxons were sounded for the first time in 16 years as people were urged to take to high ground and get off the beaches.

When the tsunami reached the islands just before 10pm last night, experts said water levels rose by about one metre and then dropped by about a metre and a half, but there were no major waves.

Experts on Hawaii said it had not been as dangerous as they had feared, but that they had been right to issue the warning and said it could strike more ferociously in other places. An official at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said Hawaii "dodged a bullet".

As several strong aftershocks hit Chile late last night, a tsunami swept into the port town of Talcahuano, causing serious damage and lifting fishing boats out of the water.

It was understood warnings in Japan and other areas would still stand.

Chile itself was unable to say exactly how many had died in the earthquake, which struck just off its Pacific coast.

With a magnitude of 8.8, the quake was the biggest to affect the Andean nation in half a century. Dr Brian Baptie, of the Edinburgh-based British Geological Survey, said: "In global terms, this is a very rare quake. It was about 124 miles north east of the largest earthquake ever recorded – 9.5 – in 1960, which resulted in a destructive tsunami that killed many thousands of people around the Pacific.

"Tsunami waves in the deep ocean travel about the same speed as a jet plane and would take about 20 hours to reach the other side of the Pacific."

Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet, declared a "state of catastrophe" in the central region. "We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks," she said from an emergency response centre. "The system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have."

Chileans, however, were shellshocked by the earthquake and a series of aftershocks that rattled the coast. The US Geological Survey said 24 of the aftershocks were of magnitude 5 or greater; one was measured at 6.9.

The main earthquake, which struck at 3:30am local time, was so big it shook buildings 900 miles away in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.

But it was the coastal towns of central Chile that bore the brunt of the quake. It flattened the historic centre of Talca, 65 miles from the epicentre. Witnesses said old buildings, made with adobe mud and straw, had largely collapsed. Neighbours in Talca pulled at least five people from the rubble, while emergency workers, themselves disoriented, asked for information from reporters.

Many roads were destroyed, and electricity, water and phone lines were cut to many areas – meaning there was no word of death or damage from many outlying districts.

In Concepcion, Chile's second city, 70 miles from the epicentre, nurses and residents pushed the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms.

A 15-storey building collapsed. "I was on the eighth floor and all of a sudden I was down here," said Fernando Abarzua, who lived in the building but somehow escaped with no major injuries.

Abarzua said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake hit, "but he keeps shouting, saying he's OK".

In the Chilean capital of Santiago, 200 miles north-east of the epicentre, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-storey car park pancaked, smashing about 50 cars.

Bachelet said several hospitals were evacuated due to earthquake damage.

Santiago's airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours, airport director Eduardo del Canto said. The passenger terminal suffered major damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone interview. TV images showed smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.

Santiago's subway system was shut and hundreds of buses were trapped at a terminal by a damaged bridge, transportation and telecommunications minister Ren Cortzar reported. He urged Chileans to make phone calls or travel only when absolutely necessary.

Roberto Candia was visiting his wife's 92-year-old grandmother in Talca when the quake struck. "Everything was falling – chests of drawers, everything," he said. "I was sleeping with my eight-year-old son, Diego, and I managed to cover his head with a pillow. It was like major turbulence on an aeroplane."

The quake struck after concert-goers had left South America's leading music festival in the coastal city of Vina del Mar, but it caught revellers leaving a disco. "It was very bad. People were screaming. Some people were running, others appeared paralysed. I was one of them," Julio Alvarez told a local radio station.

Initial reports of the tsunami suggested limited damage had been caused. Waves six feet above normal hit Talcahuano near Concepcion 23 minutes after the quake.

President Bachelet said a huge wave had also swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles off the Chilean coast, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.

Authorities around the Pacific, however, were last night taking no chances.

Even before daybreak, queues formed at Hawaii supermarkets with residents stocking up on water, canned food and batteries. Cars lined up 15 deep at several petrol stations.

Charles McCreery, the director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, which issues warnings to countries around the Pacific Rim and to Pacific island states, said: "We have a reasonable lead time. We should be able to alert everyone in harm's way to move out of the evacuation zones."

A warning was also in effect for Guam, American Samoa, Samoa and dozens of other Pacific islands.

Scientists said that – despite the speed of the waves – it could take 24 hours for yesterday's tsunami to reach Asia, New Zealand and Australia.

Seismologist Fumihiko Imamura, of Japan's Tohoku University, said residents near ocean shores should not underestimate the tsunami. "It could reach Japan without losing its strength," he said.

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on 22 May, 1960.