Massive earthquake hits Chile Too bad

One of the world's most powerful earthquakes in a century battered Chile on Saturday, killing over 300 people as it toppled buildings and triggered tsunamis that ravaged a port town and threatened Pacific coastlines as far away as Japan.

Buildings caught fire, others crumbled and bridges collapsed across swathes of central Chile, but the initial death toll was relatively low from a quake packing many times more power than the one that devastated Haiti last month.

The national emergency office said over 300 people were killed in the 8.8-magnitude quake, which struck at 3:34 am (0634 GMT), sending people rushing from their beds and onto the streets in fear, hugging each other and crying.

But it was the fifth-largest earthquake since 1900 and dealt a blow to the economy and infrastructure of the world's No. 1 copper producer and one of Latin America's most developed and stable countries.

Just too bad, too bad!