CONCEPCION: Police fired tear gas and imposed an overnight curfew to control looters who sacked virtually every market in this hard-hit city as Chile’s earthquake toll surpassed 700. President Michelle Bachelet promised imminent deliveries of food, water and shelter for thousands living on the streets.

“We are confronting an emergency without parallel in Chile’s history,” Bachelet declared yesterday, a day after the magnitude-8.8 quake - one of the biggest in centuries - killed at least 708 people and destroyed or badly damaged 500,000 homes. Bachelet said “a growing number” of people were recorded as missing.

Some coastal towns were almost obliterated, first shaken by the quake, then slammed by a tsunami that lifted whole houses and carried them inland and that reduced others to piles of sticks.

In Concepcion, 515 km south of Santiago, firefighters were today seeking survivors in a toppled apartment

building, a day after they had to pause because of tear gas fired at looters who wheeled away everything from microwave ovens to canned milk at a damaged supermarket across the street.

Ingenious looters used long tubes of bamboo and plastic

to siphon gasoline from

underground tanks at a closed gasoline station.

Bachelet signed a decree

giving the military control

over security in the

provinces of Concepcion and Maule and announced a 9 pm-6 am curfew for all non-emergency workers.

She ordered troops to help deliver food, water and blankets and clear rubble from roads, and she urged power companies to restore service first to hospitals, health clinics and shelters. Field hospitals were planned for hard-hit Concepcion, Talca and Curico.

Bachelet also ordered authorities to quickly identify the dead and return them to their families to ensure “the

dignified burials that they deserve.” Bachelet, who leaves office on March 11, said Chile needs field hospitals and temporary bridges, water purification plants and damage assessment experts - as well as rescuers to help relieve exhausted workers.

Defence Minister Francisco Vidal acknowledged the navy made a mistake by not immediately activating a tsunami warning after the quake hit before dawn on Saturday. Port captains in several coastal towns did, saving what Vidal called hundreds of lives. Thirty minutes passed between the quake and a wave that inundated coastal towns.

In Washington, the State Department urged Americans to avoid tourist and other nonessential travel to Chile. US citizens in Chile were asked to contact family and friends in the United States, whether by telephone, Internet or cell-phone text messaging.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton planned to briefly visit Santiago tomorrow as part of a five-nation Latin America trip.

Govt seeks aid

GENEVA: The United Nations says it will rush aid deliveries to Chile after the government asked for help in its recovery from this weekend’s massive earthquake. UN humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs says Chile officially made its request on Monday, two days after the 8.8-magnitude quake struck. Byrs told the AP that the global body was now “ready to take action.” Before the request, international aid groups had sent some funds and experts. But their action was limited as Chilean officials were busy assessing the destruction from the earthquake and the needs of up to 2 million affected people.