President Michelle Bachelet will travel to northern Chile on Thursday to visit towns struck by Wednesday's powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that killed at least two and left thousands homeless.
Local authorities said at least 45 people were injured by the quake, which struck at 12:43 pm (1543 GMT) Wednesday. Media reports put the figure of injured at about 100.
The quake epicenter was located some 1,260 kilometers (780 miles) north of the Chilean capital Santiago. It was felt as far away as Bolivia's capital, La Paz, high in the Andes to the northeast, as well as in southern Peru and in the western Argentine city of San Juan del Oeste.
The most affected towns are Tocopilla -- on the Pacific coast, some 400 kilometers south of the border with Peru and 100 kilometers north of Antofagasta -- as well as Maria Elena and Quillagua, all close to the quake epicenter.
Authorities said two women, one aged 88 and the other 54, died in Tocopilla when walls collapsed and crushed them.
Tocopilla Mayor Luis Moncayo said at least 4,000 people were made homeless by the quake, which "completely demolished" 1,200 buildings. He said the local hospital was damaged and patients, including people injured in the quake, were being treated at a field hospital.
In the town of Maria Elena, population 7,000 and located just east of Tocopilla, government officials said the quake destroyed 20 percent of the buildings and seriously damaged another 50 percent.
"It's a miracle there are no victims," Mayor Jorge Godoy told AFP.
Some 150 families of this town of 7,000 moved to two schools that were hastily turned into shelters.
There was no electricity in Maria Elena and the water system worked only partially. Several buildings, including the hospital, have large cracks on their outer walls.
The quake cut off telephone landlines, and the cellular phone network was saturated.
Damage was also reported in the far northern cities of Calama and Arica which lost electrical power. Area copper mines were also shut down for a few hours from lack of power.
Military aircraft carrying a field hospital and humanitarian supplies were to arrive in the affected area ahead of Bachelet, who is traveling with cabinet ministers, officials said Wednesday.
Rescuers also hoped to reach some 50 workers caught on the wrong side of a tunnel running between Tocopilla and the city of Iquique that partially collapsed. The workers reported no injuries.
Most of those wounded by the quake were injured fleeing buildings, or hit by collapsing walls or solid objects falling from rooftops, regional health officials said.
The quake damaged the Antofagasta airport, forcing passengers and staff to evacuate the terminal, Chilean radio reported. Also in Antofagasta a hotel roof ledge fell and crushed a parked car. There were no victims.
Authorities initially warned the quake could cause a tsunami, but later lifted the warning, saying the epicenter was too deep -- 60 kilometers (37 miles) and too far from the Pacific coast.
The US Geological Survey said the quake measured 7.7 on the moment magnitude scale, which measures the amount of movement on the underground fault and the area of the fault that ruptured. Many seismologists now use that system rather than the Richter scale, which measures the size based upon the amount of ground shaking.
In August, southern Peru was struck by a powerful 8.0-magnitude earthquake that left 600 people dead and 300,000 homeless.
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