The death toll from a powerful earthquake which struck Chile earlier on Saturday has risen to 78, the local TV channel 24 said.
The 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit the Latin American country in the early hours of Saturday. The tremor occurred some 89 kilometers (55.3 miles) to the north of Chile's second largest city Concepcion, some 341 kilometers (212 miles) from the capital of Santiago.
Earlier, 47 people were reported dead as a result of the earthquake.
Earlier reports set the quake magnitude at 8.3; however, the U.S. Geological Survey has recently upgraded it.
Several aftershocks, including one that measured 6.9 on the Richter scale, followed the initial quake.
The Chilean state television said the country's president, Michelle Bachelet, was expected to arrive to the quake-hit area. Two of the country's regions neighboring the stricken Biobio Region, Maule and Araucania, were declared a zone of catastrophe.
The Santiago Airport was reportedly closed as the result of the earthquake.
The quake caused a tsunami, which has already struck the Robinson Crusoe Island, the largest in the Chilean Juan Fernandez archipelago, and is heading toward Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean where evacuations to higher ground are underway.
Some 50 nations have been placed under a tsunami advisory. Areas of concern are the Hawaiian Islands, French Polynesia, Australia, and Japan. Russia's Far Eastern region was also advised, but local emergency authorities have stated that the region is in no danger.
MOSCOW, February 27 (RIA Novosti)
