A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake has struck northern Chile, according to the US Geological Survey.
The quake, 60km (37 miles) deep, was centred 106km west of the northern town of Calama and struck at 1240 local time (1540 GMT), the survey said.
A presidential spokesman said there had been no initial reports of injuries, the AP news agency reported.
US officials warned the quake could trigger a tsunami, but Chilean authorities played down the risk.
"It was horribly strong. It was very long and there was a lot of underground noise," Andrea Riveros, a hotel worker in Calama, told AP.
The quake could reportedly be felt strongly in the capital Santiago, 1,260km to the south.
In the affected region, there were reports of outages of electrical and phone services, but no immediate news of casualties.
In the cities of Calama and Arica, panicked residents reportedly ran into the streets.
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