SANTIAGO - A massive 8.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the central coast of Chile on Wednesday, killing at least three people, triggering the evacuation of coastal areas and sparking warnings that tsunami waves could reach as far as Japan.
In Chile, thousands of terrified residents rushed out onto the streets in the capital Santiago. The quake was felt as far away as Argentina, where buildings also swayed.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet put the death toll at three, with 10 more injured, and said she would go on Thursday to the affected zones.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) put the shallow offshore quake at a magnitude of 8.3 and said it hit just 228 kilometers (about 140 miles) north of Santiago, a city of 6.6 million people.
The quake, which struck at 7:54 pm (2254 GMT), hit at a depth of eight kilometers, USGS said. Seismologists also reported multiple aftershocks, some of them above 6.0.
The Chilean government put the main earthquake at 8.4 on the Richter scale.
"The motion began lightly, then stronger and stronger," said Santiago resident Jeannette Matte.
"We were on the 12th floor and we were very afraid because it was not stopping. First it was from side to side, then it was like little jumps."
Interior Minister Jorge Burgos said shortly after the quake hit that the evacuation of coastal towns and cities had been ordered as a precautionary measure. Classes were cancelled in coastal areas.
"We know there could be more aftershocks and so we must continue to evaluate the situation minute-by-minute," Bachelet said.
The quake was felt as far away as Buenos Aires, about 1,400 kilometers away, while a tsunami warning was initially in place for the whole of Chile and Peru's Pacific coastline.
Among the dead were a woman in Illapel, close to the epicenter, and an 86-year-old man in Santiago, where there were scenes of pandemonium as thousands fled swaying buildings.
Hardest-hit Illapel, a coastal city of 30,000, saw its electricity fail and several homes were damaged.
In coastal La Serena, in the north of Chile, "people were running in all directions," said resident Gloria Navarro.
A similar fear seized residents in Argentina.
"We went into a panic and the floor kept moving. We went out into the hallway and down the stairs," Celina Atrave, 65, who lives in a 25-story high-rise near downtown Buenos Aires, told AFP.
As far as Japan
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that "hazardous" tsunami waves were possible for some parts of Chile's shoreline, including above three meters (10 feet) the tide level.
Tsunami waves were also possible along French Polynesia, Hawaii and California, officials said, as well as smaller waves as far afield as Japan and New Zealand.
The first tsunami waves struck Chile's coast, including the tourist city of Valparaiso, local television pictures showed, but there were no immediate details of damage or injuries.
The precautionary alert for Peru was later called off, civil defence officials said, but scared residents in the city of Ilo, close to the border with Chile, remained out on the streets and on higher ground nonetheless.
In April last year, a deadly 8.2-magnitude earthquake in northern Chile killed six people and forced a million to leave their homes in the region around Iquique.
And a February 27, 2010 quake that struck just off the coast of Chile's Maule region measured 8.8 in magnitude, making it one of the largest ever recorded.
It killed more than 500 people and inflicted an estimated $30 billion in damages.