Strong quake shakes Chile; no reports of damage

SANTIAGO, Chile – A strong earthquake rattled buildings in Chile’s capital and other regions of the country on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury and authorities discounted the possibility of a tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey calculated the quake’s magnitude at 6.4 and said it hit at 1:20 p.m. (1620 GMT). It was centred 119 miles (192 kilometres) south of Santiago at a depth of 54 miles (87 kilometres).

Chile’s navy issued a statement saying a tsunami was unlikely to hit the country’s long coast.

Officials said they had no immediate reports of damage, though the quake interrupted telephone service briefly.

Chile is highly earthquake-prone. In 2010, a magnitude 8.8 quake, one of the strongest ever recorded, unleashed a devastating tsunami and killed more than 500 people while destroying more than 220,000 homes. The quake prompted the Andean nation to improve its alert systems for both quakes and tsunamis.