Panic in the streets in quake-hit Chile

The desperate situation was made worse by immediate power outages after the quake snapped powerlines.

Chileans spoke of a night of terror Saturday after being shaken awake hours before dawn by a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 78 people, and triggered a tsunami.

"It was the worst experience of my life," said 22-year-old Sebastian, standing outside his house in eastern Santiago where residents fled their homes in panic after the quake shook the ground for almost two minutes starting around 3:34 am (0634 GMT).

"Is everybody alright?," neighbors asked each other amid tears of disbelief at the situation, as families scrambled to make phone calls to their loved ones.

The desperate situation was made worse by immediate power outages after the quake snapped powerlines.

Most houses in the capital, some 325 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of the epicenter, appeared relatively undamaged from the outside, but the interior of many buildings showed the evident violent impact with toppled appliances and shaken belongings, and cracks ripping up walls.

Santiago and its six million residents withstood the quake fairly well, according to authorities, although some major churches in the city center and the international airport sustained serious damage.

But even government workers said they were still unable to contact places around the quake's epicenter, while a dearth of official reports left various accounts describing "nightmarish scenes" with entire towns destroyed.

Earthquake-prone Chile lies along the Pacific rim of fire and is regularly rocked by quakes, but damage is often limited as they mostly hit in desert regions which are sparsely populated.

Television images from parts of Concepcion however showed destroyed or heavily damaged buildings and debris-strewn streets in the million-strong city, the largest urban area closest to the epicenter.

A fire was also raging in a huge warehouse-type building.