Tsunami fear amid Chile aftershock
Chile's president Sebastian Pinera waves during his swearing in ceremony in Valparaiso
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Thursday March 11 2010
Chile was put on tsunami alert after a severe aftershock rattled the country less than a fortnight after the massive quake that killed hundreds.
It hit just before new president Sebastian Pinera formally took office in Valparaiso's congress building.
The ceremony went ahead but shortly afterwards congress was evacuated and Mr Pinera urged everyone living on the coast to head for higher ground.
The Chilean Navy issued the tsunami warning but the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the aftershocks were too small to cause dangerous waves beyond Chile's central coast.
Last month's 8.8-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest recorded, killed 500 identified victims and possibly hundreds of others.
The quake also destroyed or badly damaged at least 500,000 homes, roads, hospitals and other buildings.
Thursday's aftershock measured 7.2 - stronger than the January quake that devastated Haiti.
In total seven aftershocks hit the country, making buildings sway and sending frightened Chileans streaming into the street.
The government's emergency office - much criticised for failing to issue a tsunami alert that might have saved hundreds of lives from the towering waves that followed the initial quake - urged Chileans to seek higher ground even though the epicentre of the recent biggest shock was inland.
At the inauguration, Bolivian President Evo Morales seemed briefly disoriented and Peru's Alan Garcia joked that it gave them "a moment to dance." Outgoing President Michelle Bachelet said she was leaving Chile in good shape in the wake of the February quake, handing off the government to the first right-wing president to be elected in 52 years.
