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Residents ran to open spaces as a 6.6-magnitude aftershock rattled the city of Concepcion
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) and Chile's President Michelle Bachelet attend a news conference in Santiago, capital of Chile, March 5, 2010. Ban Ki-moon on Friday pledged 10 million dolllars aid from the Central Emergency Fund of the United Nations to the quake-hit Chile
Powerful aftershocks have rattled buildings and sent terrified residents fleeing into the streets in the Chilean city of Concepcion.
Fears of of additional damage in the tremors before dawn on Friday led officials to evacuate some patients from the regional hospital.
Patricia Correa, who was overseeing the hospital's emergency ward, said her part of the five-story building was "on the point of collapsing. The walls cracked".
The strongest of the aftershocks was a magnitude 6.6.
"Some chunks of buildings that were already in bad condition fell, but nothing significant," a senior government official in quake-hit Bio Bio region told local radio.
UN support
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, arrived in the capital, Santiago, on Friday, promising support for Chile.
"The Chilean government is asking for international aid and we will give it," he said.
Meanwhile, Michelle Bachelet, the outgoing Chilean president, met with Sebastian Pinera, her successor, and they promised to try to avoid letting the March 11 hand-over of power interrupt aid efforts.
"The new government will have an immense challenge," Bachelet said.
Pinera has even before his inauguration named new governors for the six hardest-hit regions and told them to get to work.
Officials were still struggling to determine the death toll of the magnitude-8.8 quake, as well as the damage to roads, ports and hospitals.
Disaster officials announced they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead in the hardest-hit part of the country - an error that would drop the official death toll to about 540 if there were no other mistakes.
But interior department officials said that from now on, they would release only the number of dead who had been identified: 279 as of Friday.
Uncertainty to remain
Doubts over the death toll are likely to persist, partly because an undetermined number of victims were washed out to sea in the ensuing tsunamis and some bodies may never be recovered.
"The number of disappeared is very difficult to determine," Patricio Bustos, a government forensics specialist in the city of Talca, said.
"It can take a very long time."
The government said on Friday it had removed Mariano Rojas as head of the Navy's oceanographic service over its failure to issue a tsunami warning for the Pacific immediately after Saturday's quake.
Port captains in several towns issued their own warnings, but a national alert never came, and some say that failure led to deaths.
The United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki Moon committed the UN to giving Chile 10 million dollars from an emergency fund at a joint press conference with Chile's President Michelle Bachelet on Friday.
"The UN will authorize 10 million dollars from a central emergency response fund," Ban told journalists. "We will also establish a working group to look at Chile's most urgent needs," he said.
During the same conference, Bachelet said that she welcomed 2 million dollars' worth emergency material from China on an early Friday.
"This is a gesture that shows the excellence of the links we have had with China," Bachelet told the press conference in response to a question from Xinhua. "It has been the same with the free trade agreement and the cultural exchanges we have had," she added.
Chile experienced an earthquake measuring 8.8 magnitude on the Richter scale six days ago, which killed 279 people, at the last official count, but which may prove to have killed more than 1,000 once all the dead have been confirmed.
Chinese officials said Friday's flight represented the furthest geographical distance that the nation had sent aid and the furthest geographical distance from which Chile had received assistance. It is the first time China has sent a cargo plane to South America carrying material alone.
"It is not easy to cross the world," Bachelet told media. This really expresses the authentic willingness to support Chile, and " we are very grateful," she added.
Chile has received aid from 86 nations and 16 non-government organizations. Bachelet also highlighted aid from Bolivia, sent by both Chileans living there and Bolivia's government, even though the two nation's have not had diplomatic relations since the mid- 1980s. Ban said that 14 UN agencies are taking part in such efforts.
Ban and Bachelet said that they had already begun working with Sebastian Pinera, who will take over Chile's presidency on March 11.
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Chile looks ahead at "enormous task" in rebuilding, Chilean UN envoy says
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"What we have ahead is enormous task of reconstruction," Munoz told reporters at a press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York. "But Chile is standing up -- we are recuperating." Full story
Chile announces national mourning period for quake victims
The Chilean government announced on Thursday that a three-day national mourning period will start Sunday for victims killed in last week's massive quake.
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