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Looters run from a supermarket in quake-ravaged Concepcion.
Chileans in the capital Santiago and further south near the epicentre of the weekend's devastating earthquake are passing an uneasy night broken by aftershocks.
The death toll from the massive quake that struck the Latin American nation on Saturday night has risen to more than 700, as reports emerge of coastal towns devastated by the tremors and tsunami that followed.
President Michelle Bachelet said she expected the death toll to rise. More than 400 Australians are believed to have been in Chile when the 8.8-magnitude quake hit.
Residents in the city of Concepcion are under curfew, with police struggling to control looting in the city as people steal everything from microwave ovens to canned milk.
At least 160 people were detained and one person was shot dead during the curfew as the army was called in to help the overwhelmed police force.
There is no drinking water in Concepcion and the city is still cut off from the rest of the country and the world more than 48 hours after the earthquake.
Carolina Gutierrez is a Santiago resident. Her aunt, uncle and their three children are in the city. She sent a message to the family who were OK, but did not have any electricity or water.
"They're very worried about going outdoors because there's also been people stealing, like breaking in some supermarkets and some stores taking advantage of the situation," she said.
Ms Gutierrez says basic food items like bread have tripled in price and she is worried for her family.
"I'm still concerned because if they don't even have water for maybe one day it could be fine, but then another day or three days it's going to be a problem," she said.
Across Chile the death toll has expanded due to a tsunami triggered by the massive earthquake. Coastal towns have been swept away, leaving survivors traumatised.
"My mother and my father are missing and nobody moves. The authorities don't do a thing. I fear that they are dead," one man said.
"I was with my wife and my parents. I couldn't start the car, then it swept us away," another man said.
"I was trying to save her and something hit me. I was drowning. I left her standing on something. I can't find my wife."
Desperation
Chile's ambassador to the UN, Heraldo Munoz, told the BBC the looting can be understood to a certain extent due to people's desperation.
"When it actually happens in this magnitude it is something totally different. You don't have any electricity. You don't have water. You're isolated, as has happened with many communities," he said.
"Then there's desperation - 'what is going to be my next meal?' And that is what is happening to families with children, with seniors and that's why some are desperate and they will turn to looting. Others are simply petty criminals."
But Mr Munoz says as bad as the situation is, it could have been worse.
"Chile is a country with a history of earthquakes, so perhaps we would be lamenting deaths in the many, many thousands," he said.
"A quake of this nature - this was 8.8 and the tragedy in Haiti was 7.0 and it was well above 100,000 people dead. We have to find comfort at least in that, even though the material destruction has been monumental."
Chile has sent out an international call, listing their aid requirements.
Officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) have held talks with the Chilean embassy, working out what role Australia can play in aid and longer-term reconstruction.
Japan has announced it will send an emergency medical team.
While night has fallen over Chile, Ms Gutierrez says many people cannot sleep with aftershocks still shaking Santiago.
"The aftershocks are very scary. I just felt one half an hour ago, 20 minutes ago I felt one. They were very big ones and I woke up this morning to a big one. It was 6 on the Richter scale," she said.
"After having lived through the big earthquake it's not as much, but it's still scary because you never know."
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