Thousands in Chile evacuated for earthquake

SANTIAGO, Chile - A magnitude-7.1 earthquake shook southern Chile Sunday afternoon, sending tens of thousands fleeing for higher ground for fear that it could generate a tsunami like the one that ravaged the coastline last year.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or damage, and Vicente Nuñez, head of the National Emergency Office, said no tsunami alert was issued.

"There has been no harm to people, no harm to property," he said. "We will continue monitoring." The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii also said a destructive Pacific Ocean-wide tsunami was not expected.

President Sebastián Piñera urged calm in an address to the nation. "There was an exercise of self-evacuation, which is exactly what we have asked people to do," Piñera said. "Fortunately we do not have to lament accidents or losses of life."

Some cell-phone communications and electrical power were knocked out in the Araucania region, 370 miles south-southwest of Santiago.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was about 45 miles away from the provincial capital of Temuco, which has a population of about 250,000. The quake struck at a depth of about 11 miles, the USGS said, and there was at least one aftershock of 5.0 magnitude.

Sergio Barrientos of the University of Chile said Sunday's temblor was an aftershock of the magnitude-8.8 mega-quake on Feb. 27 that killed at least 521 people. - AP