More than half a million people in Chile's central coastal region of Valparaiso participated on Monday in an earthquake and tsunami drill, which officials said went off without a hitch.
The mid-morning exercise in the area, located about 120 kilometres west of the capital Santiago, took 20 minutes to complete and was called a success by Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter.
“We can't become distracted and must always stay focused on how to protect ourselves,” Hinzpeter told reporters. “There's no better way to prepare than a drill.”
In February 2010, a massive earthquake hit Chile's central Maule region, south of Valparaiso, generating tsunami waves, killing more than 500 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
Since then, further quakes have caused concern about what could be to come.
During Monday's exercise, which simulated an 8.7-magnitude quake followed by a tsunami, most of the region's 600,000 inhabitants quickly headed to roughly 300 meeting points in a timely and orderly fashion, per official instructions.
Along the coast, shelters were located at least 30 meters above sea level. In schools and nurseries, firefighters and police officers helped evacuate children.
Chile sits on what geologists call the Pacific “Ring of Fire” due to its intense seismic activity. - Sapa-AFP