(Updates spokesman from Chile’s state emergency office)
SANTIAGO, April 16 (Reuters) – A powerful 6.5 magnitude
earthquake struck near Chile’s eastern coastal port of
Valparaiso early on Tuesday, shaking buildings as far away as
the capital Santiago, but there were no immediate reports of
damage or injuries and the country’s main copper mines were
unaffected.
State emergency office ONEMI said a stretch of coastline was
being evacuated as a precaution, but there was no tsunami alert.
The quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey measured at
magnitude 6.5, struck 26 miles (42 km) north-northeast of
Valparaiso, and 69 miles (112 km) northwest of the capital
Santiago at a depth of 16.1 miles (25.9 km), it said.
“We have no reports of any damage or injuries so far,” a
spokesman for ONEMI told Reuters. Local media said basic
services like power and telecommunications continued to operate
normally
The USGS initially said the quake was a magnitude 6.6.
State mining giant Codelco, the world’s No.1
copper producer, said its operations were not impacted by the
quake, as did global miner Anglo American.
Chile is prone to earthquakes, and was hammered by a massive
tremor in early 2010 which ravaged the south-center of the
country, devastating industries and triggering tsunamis, which
killed hundreds of people.
(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer, Simon Gardner, Antonio de la
Jara, Moises Avila, Fabian Cambero, Felipe Iturrieta; Editing by
David Brunnstrom)
