12 Oct 2012

Quake in central Chile

8:45 am on 12 October 2012

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck the central region of Chile on Thursday afternoon.

There are no initial reports of damage, though buildings swayed in the capital Santiago.

However, cell phones appear to be down and shoppers left malls following the tremor.

The navy said the quake should not trigger a tsunami.

Chile was battered by an 8.8 magnitude quake in February 2010, whose subsequent tsunami devastated large parts of the south-central coastline.