CONCEPCION, Chile, Feb. 28, 2010
Chile's president sent the army to help police attack looting on Sunday in the wake of an earthquake that shattered cities and killed at least 708 people.
President Michelle Bachelet announced the sharply higher new death toll after a six-hour meeting with aides and emergency officials struggling to cope with Saturday's magnitude-8.8 quake. They had earlier said about 300 were known dead, with 500,000 homes severely damaged.
"We face a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort" for Chile to recover, Bachelet told a news conference.
She said that a growing number of people were listed as missing and she signed a decree giving the military over security in the province of Concepcion, where looters have pillaged supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies and banks.
On Sunday afternoon state television was reporting more than 350 deaths in the coastal town of Constitution, some caused by a tsunami that swept the city, according to a Reuters report. It was unclear how this number affected the overall death toll.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/28/world/main6253093.shtml