Rescuers on Tuesday pulled out 79 survivors and seven bodies from the debris of a collapsed building in earthquake-stricken Concepcion.
Firefighter commander Juan Carlos Subercaseaux told the press that six occupants of the building remain missing.
The eight-story building in downtown Concepcion, which was put into use last year and contains 80 apartments, was turned into a pile of rubble about three stories high by Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake. Rescuers had feared that most of the trapped occupants might have been killed.
Subercaseaux, whose team just returned from Haiti, attributed the survival of such a large number of occupants to the quake-proof design of the building, which was able to keep space inside the rubble after the structure collapsed.
Concepcion, located on the Pacific coast in northwestern Chile, was the worst-hit city in the massive earthquake that has left nearly 800 people dead.
The Chilean government Tuesday extended an 8 p.m.-to-noon curfew to begin at 6 p.m. to crack down on looting in the city.
Authorities also added three towns, Talca, Cauquenes and Constitucion, to the curfew list to suppress looting in those areas.
President Michelle Bachelet said Tuesday that she will enforce "all the strictness of the law" on those responsible for looting and riots in the earthquake-hit regions.
"We have ordered to carry out with the necessary severity to prevent illegal actions from continuing to happen, and those who do not understand will receive all the strictness of the law," Bachelet said.
She added that the looting and other problems were the "criminal actions of small groups that are causing huge material and human damages."
"It cannot be tolerant that the firemen, who today are fulfilling important rescue works in Concepcion, have to use their resources to fight against a fire in a supermarket, where the goods are valuable resources for the people," Bachelet said.
She said temporary hospitals have been established, and the delivery of food, water, blankets and clothes to the most affected regions has started.
"People probably are always going to feel that we could have done things better," the president said. "But the reality is given the extent (of destruction), it will always be insufficient."
The Army and the Navy of Chile will deploy two frigates, one ship, 11,855 troops, 2,131 marines and 50 planes to provide assistance in the regions of Maule and Bio Bio.
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