A powerful earthquake in Chile's remote northern Andes yesterday killed at least eight people and causing widespread damage in several mountain villages.
Interior Minister Jorge Correa said there could be more victims in some isolated communities but said no details yet available because of poor communications in the region, which is near the Bolivian border.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.9, according to both the US Geological Survey and Chilean officials, making it the world's third strongest quake since the quake that set off an Asian tsunami in December.
Mr Correa said a boulder fell on a car, killing all five passengers - three adults and two children - near Iquique, a port city 1,200 miles north of Santiago, the capital.
The other victims were three elderly men killed in two different Andean villages.
The quake struck at 6.44pm and was centred in an unpopulated Andean area, about 940 miles north of Santiago, the capital. It was also felt in several cities in southern Peru and Bolivia, but no victims or major damage were reported in either neighbouring country.
In the Bolivian capital of La Paz, many people took to the streets in panic.
AP