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Soldiers guard the streets of Talcahuano, in southern Chile. The army was drafted in after mass looting broke out / AP Source: AP

Residents reach out to catch food and supplies thrown down from a looted supermarket in Concepcion / AP Source: AP

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Crews work to free survivors of quake

People queue to fill bottles of water from an inflatable pool in Concepcion / AFP Source: AFP

About 160 people were detained by military patrols for breaking the nighttime curfew in and around the southern city of Concepcion where troops had earlier fired tear gas to stop looters pillaging cart-loads of goods.

President Michelle Bachelet has said she expects the death toll of 708 to rise, as the full scale of the devastation wrought by Saturday's 8.8-magnitude quake emerges from seaside towns and villages engulfed by giant waves.

But in another twist to a tragic story, an aid plane has crashed as it headed to the quake zone, killing all six people on board.  The victims were going to help the estimated 2.1 million people left homeless by the disaster.

Death, chaos

State television reported that more than 300 bodies were found in the swamped fishing village of Constitucion alone, leaving survivors to stare in disbelief at the seaweed clinging to what was left of their livelihoods.

The mayor of Concepcion pleaded urgently for help as rescuers with heat detectors and sniffer dogs hunted for dozens of people believed to be trapped in a 15-story apartment block toppled on its side by the quake.

The plaintive cry of "Is anyone there?" echoed throughout the night around the building. Eight bodies were pulled from the rubble on Sunday but rescuers are still hopeful of finding survivors.

The army was also called in to help the overwhelmed police force deal with looters, some of whom dragged shopping carts full of provisions while others made off with plasma TVs and electrical appliances.

"I would advise criminals not to mess with the armed forces. Our response will be severe, but within the context of the law," Guillermo Ramirez, military commander of the central Maule region, warned the looters.

As they struggled to keep order, the troops fired tear gas and water cannon on residents, driven to desperation by a lack of water and electricity.  The deputy interior minister Patricio Rosende reported that one person had been shot dead.

He gave no details about who the individual and declined to say where the 160 people detained for violating the curfew were being held.

Chilean media reported that initial police enquiries suggested the individual had been killed during a confrontation between looters.

"It's for my children. It's the only way to give them something to eat," cried one man as he tore at the metal shutters of a supermarket.

As dawn broke, others could be seen making off with large sacks of flour on their backs from an industrial zone.

"This is not stealing. It's to make bread to survive," said one man in his 40s as he drove off with a sacked precariously balanced on his motorbike.

President-elect Sebastian Pinera said the situation in Concepcion was dangerous.

"When we have a catastrophe of this magnitude, when there is no electricity and no water, the population ... starts losing the sense of public order."

The streets largely emptied as the curfew came into force but some residents spent the night around bonfires in front of their damaged houses for fear of going inside in the face of possible new aftershocks.

Ms Bachelet, due to hand over power to Pinera on March 11, said the air force was to begin flying in food and aid to badly hit areas, some of which were largely cut off by the quake.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was bringing communications equipment to Chile while Japan said it would give up to $3 million in assistance and send a medical team to Chile.  China said it would donate $1 million.