SANTIAGO, Chile – A powerful earthquake shook northern Chile on Monday, briefly knocking out electricity to a city and alarming its residents, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of deaths or major damage.
The Seismological Institute of the University of Chile said the quake had a magnitude of 6.2 and was centered in an unpopulated area in the Andes mountains near the border with Bolivia, some 26 miles north of the town of Pica. It struck at 5:39 p.m.
The tremor was felt along 370 miles of Chile's narrow territory
Chile's Emergency Bureau said no victims or damage were reported, but there was panic among residents of the port city of Iquique, 1,120 miles north of Santiago. Electricity and telephone services were briefly cut in Iquique.
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