Chile quake death toll hits 708

As Chile is slowly trying to recover from the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that left 708 people dead, reports say that 48 people are still trapped alive inside one of the toppled apartment blocks.

Firefighters are still desperately hunting for bodies from the ruins of the buildings.

Firefighter Ignacio Carrizo, who is in charge of one of the teams of rescuers with sniffer dogs, said on Sunday that his colleagues have recovered eight bodies from a building in Concepcion, Chile’s second biggest city. He added that he believes 48 people trapped inside the same building “are alive.”

The official death toll from Saturday’s earthquake is now 708, President Michelle Bachelet told reporters on Sunday.

The quake has left entire towns cut off from rescuers with roads and bridges crumpled.

Meanwhile, the Teniente copper mine, which was not affected by the massive quake, restarted extraction operations on Sunday, despite a limited power supply.

Ricardo Alvarez, the manager of El Teniente, which is Chile’s fourth largest mine and accounts for more than 7 percent of national output, said that the facilities are undamaged and that roads to the exporting port of San Antonio are in good condition.

Chile is the world’s No. 1 copper exporter.

Bachelet on Sunday declared a 30-day state of emergency in the worst-hit regions of Maule and Biobio, which are on the west coast. In Concepcion, the hardest-hit city, a nightly curfew from 2100 to 0600 local time was declared.

People of the hardest hit parts of the country are complaining that the government is not doing enough to help them. The towns are in chaos as looters have taken to the streets. Around 10,000 soldiers have been deployed to provide security.