WRAPUP 2-Chilean troops patrol quake-hit city under curfew

Tue Mar 2, 2010 7:47am EST

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* Curfew extended as looting worsens

* Complaints rise over slow aid response

* Death toll at 723, coastal towns devastated

* Copper prices ease as mines resume, peso firmer (Adds copper prices easing, food prices rising, peso)

By Mario Naranjo

Concepcion, Chile, March 2 (Reuters) - Chilean troops patrolled the desolate streets of the country's second-biggest city on Tuesday after a curfew was extended to stem worsening looting and crime in the wake of a devastating earthquake.

A night-time curfew in the badly damaged city of Concepcion was prolonged until midday after hordes of desperate residents smashed into shuttered stores, stripping shelves bare and carting off whatever they could find left.

Some people armed with sticks and shotguns banded together with neighbors to protect their stricken homes and many complained that government food aid and other supplies were arriving too slowly.

Despite the arrival of thousands of troops to reinforce local police, authorities were struggling to restore order in the city that bore the brunt of Saturday morning's 8.8-magnitude quake that killed at least 723 people.

"The soldiers just arrived and haven't been able to control the situation. The neighbors where I live are organizing to defend themselves because people are starting to rob houses," Caroline Contreras, a 36-year-old teacher, said.

President Michelle Bachelet, who condemned the "pillage and criminality," dispatched 7,000 soldiers and imposed curfews to restore order in the stricken region, where more strong aftershocks rattled nerves on Tuesday.

Food, blankets and medical aid were being dispatched to some of the estimated two million people affected by the quake, as residents complained of skyrocketing prices of everyday staples like bread and milk.

Most of Concepcion remained without water and electricity.

The devastating quake struck as Latin America's most stable economy was trying to recover from a recession brought on by the global financial crisis. The total economic damage from the quake could exceed $15 billion, the catastrophe risk firm AIR Worldwide said.

But both the human and economic cost could have been a lot worse given the size of the quake, one of the world's biggest in the past century.

AID RESPONSE

The government has acknowledged that it has battled to provide aid swiftly because of crumpled highways and major power disruptions caused by the quake.

Residents also criticized the aid response in the battered central city of Talca, where the main hospital partly collapsed, forcing doctors and nurses to treat wounded quake victims in a clinic.

Counters overflowed with boxes of medicine that had been hastily arranged. Nearly 10 people have died at the hospital and the morgue has received at least 30 bodies, officials said.

"We haven't got any help from the government. We were expecting more and are still waiting for the three basics -- food, water and electricity," Damian Vera Vergara, 68, said.

Rescue teams, who found signs of life in the rubble of a collapsed apartment block in Concepcion, worked through the night to find possible survivors. About 60 people were thought to have been killed when it crumbled.

The quake sent massive waves surging into villages on the country's Pacific coast.

In the town of Constitucion alone, 350 people were reported to have died, and the full scale of damage in isolated coastal towns remained unclear. [ID:nN01190969]

"We stayed in the house during the quake and then my wife started worrying about the sea coming in ... so we scrambled inland," said Manuel Parra, 64, whose simple seafront home was washed off its foundations.

"Those who went inland up the hill survived. Those who didn't are no longer here."

Fears of a major blow to Chile's economy from the quake receded somewhat as the stock market and the currency remained resilient. Other Latin American markets also took the quake in stride. [ID:nN01115496]

Mines in Chile, the world's leading copper producer, resumed activity and the central bank said it would keep interest rates at record lows to help stimulate the economy. [ID:nN01258502]

Copper prices surged after the quake, climbing by as much as 5.6 percent CMCU3, but they were down sharply on Tuesday at $7,360 per tonne. [ID:nSGE62100U]

The Chilean peso opened higher on bets the government and pension funds will repatriate offshore funds to pay for the reconstruction effort

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