source: www.reuters.com
(Reuters)
- A strong magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit central-northern Chile on Wednesday,
shaking buildings as far away as the capital Santiago, and possibly leading a
woman to die minutes later of an apparent heart attack, the U.S. Geological
Survey and local officials said.
There
were no reports of serious damage.
The
quake, initially reported as a magnitude 6.7, struck at a depth of 28.4 miles,
63 miles southwest of the mining town Copiapo and 364 miles north of Santiago
at 5:15 p.m. (2015 GMT), the U.S. Geological Survey said.
A
50-year-old woman in Copiapo died after presumably suffering a heart attack
following the quake, Chile's Onemi emergency office said.
The
earthquake hit well south of large mines in the world's top copper producer and
Chile's emergency office said there were no preliminary reports of significant
damage.
"Mining
companies have reported some minor rock falls on auxiliary roads ... the
companies' personnel are fine and there are no structural damages to speak
of," said Copiapo's regional mining authority Mauricio Pino.
The
navy said the quake did not meet the conditions needed to generate a tsunami
off the country's Pacific coastline.
Nearly
three years ago, a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami ravaged
central-southern Chile, killing hundreds of people and causing billions of
dollars worth of damage.
The
mayor of Vallenar, a town close to the epicenter, told CNN Chile some walls had
collapsed in lower-income areas with poorer quality buildings.
Television
showed images of minor damage to homes such as broken windows and bottles of
cooking oil thrown from their shelves in a local supermarket.
(Reporting
by Santiago newsroom and Sandra Maler in Washington; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer
and Anthony Esposito; Editing by Jim Loney and Lisa Shumaker)
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