A massive earthquake, measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale, struck Chile on Wednesday night. The quake hit eight regions, leaving at least eight dead, many homes totally destroyed, and the precise number of wounded still yet to be determined.
Illapel, a mid-sized Chilean city that sits near the country's narrowest point, has been identified as the epicenter of the earthquake, that struck around eight PM local time.
"Once again we're having to deal with another harsh blow from nature," Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who was scheduled to visit the afflicted city on Thursday morning, said in an nationally televised address following the earthquake.
Canela, Salamanca, Choapa, Illaper, Coquimbo, and Los Vilos are the areas that the Chilean government has said the disaster has struck the hardest.
An estimated one million people were evacuated from their homes as a precaution following the tremor.
The quake was strong enough that it set off a tsunami warning for Japan, Antarctica, New Zealand and much of South Pacific.
Chileans shared pictures of the devastation on Twitter, capturing the flooding the quake caused and the wreckage it left behind.
→ #Chileearthquake Chile earthquake Flooding in Concón, Chile, ... http://t.co/inVxWqyRF8
#Chile | Así amaneció el borde costero de Tongoy tras tsunami. #sismoChile
Terremoto de Chile, uno de los de mayor intensidad en 25 años. #Terremoto #Chile #MayorInt… http://t.co/qZ5LaVaVgR
#TerremotoChile Ministro del interior, en #Chile, elevó a 10 el número de víctimas fatales por terremoto y #tsunami.
Chile: evacuados por el terremoto regresan a sus hogares http://t.co/QvzN1WeeWL #Sismo #Chile