As rescuers continue the daunting task of sifting through rubble to find Chileans trapped under debris after Saturday morning's massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake, the official death toll has skyrocketed to more than 708.
A curfew has also been instituted as police and the army attempt to stop looting which has broken out in some areas.
Speaking at a press conference, President Michelle Bachelet said Chile faces "a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort" to recover.
Earlier Sunday, authorities had put the death toll at 300. But after a midday meeting, Bachelet said the number had doubled.
An estimated 1.5 million Chileans were affected by the quake, and 500,000 homes sustained severe damage, authorities said.
The earthquake, which lasted only 90 seconds but was one of the strongest ever recorded, caused Bachelet to declare a "state of catastrophe."
A tsunami caused by the earthquake hit a Chilean island off the coast, killing several people. Countries along the Pacific Rim braced for the possibility of a powerful tsunami Saturday, but the waves caused little damage. The tsunami warnings were lifted by Sunday morning.
Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city with a population of more than 200,000 was the largest city near the earthquake's epicentre. Police said more than 100 people died in the city where rescuers worked Sunday to free more survivors.
Bachelet has also handed over security in Conception to the army as locals have struggled to stockpile food and supplies in the quake's aftermath.
The Associated Press reported that supplies at grocery stores were virtually gone by Sunday afternoon. Bottled water was also in scarce supply.
"We are overwhelmed," a police officer told the AP.
The curfew will be in effect from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and only emergency personnel will be allowed on the streets.
A rescue crew searching the rubble of an apartment building had to suspend their efforts as police fired tear gas to stop looters at a nearby grocery store.
A recently-completed 15-storey apartment building fell in the opening seconds of the earthquake, toppling backward to trap nearly 60 people inside apartments.
Twenty-four hours after the quake, only 16 people had been pulled out alive and six bodies had been recovered.
Rescuers worked slowly to try and reach a woman who called out at around 11 p.m. local time Saturday, but said the process was not an easy one.
"It's very difficult working in the dark with aftershocks, and inside it's complicated. The apartments are totally destroyed. You have to work with great caution," Paulo Klein, who was leading a group of rescue specialists from Puerto Montt, told The Associated Press.
The local university was one of several buildings that caught fire throughout the city after gas and power lines snapped. Damage to a local prison also allowed several inmates to escape.
The earthquake buckled highways, flattened houses and collapsed bridges. In the capital Santiago, 325 kilometres southwest of the epicentre, the National Museum of Fine Arts was damaged and the two-storey parking lot of an apartment building flattened. The quake was felt as far away as Sao Paolo, Brazil -- 2,900 kilometres to the east.
Santiago's airport and subway are closed. While damage assessment continues, Chile's main seaport in Valparaiso is also closed. Two oil refineries were shut down, and state-run Codelco, the world's largest producer of copper, had to stop work at two of its mines.
The total extent of damage is not yet clear. Within 24 hours of the quake, 90 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater shook the earthquake-prone country.
Since 1973, there have been 13 earthquakes of a 7.0 magnitude or greater in Chile.
A 9.5-magnitude quake -- the strongest ever recorded -- struck the country's southern coast in 1960. It killed 1,655 people and left another 2 million homeless. The ensuing tsunami killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States.
After Saturday's quake, a huge wave struck a populated area of the Robinson Crusoe Islands, an archipelago 660 kilometres off the Chilean coast, Bachelet said.
At least five people were killed on the island and 11 more were missing there, said Guillermo de la Masa, head of the government emergency bureau for the Valparaiso region.
