Britons missing after Chile quake

Mar 1 2010

Concerns are mounting for Britons feared missing in the aftermath of the devastating Chilean earthquake.

Two British couples staying at the coastal resort of Pichilemu are among those who have not yet contacted their families.

Efforts to reach the resort are being hampered after telephone and power lines were damaged in the quake.

The massive earthquake, with a magnitude of 8.8, has so far killed more than 700 people.

Kirsty Duff, from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, and Dave Sandercock, from Edinburgh, both 25, arrived in the country three weeks ago, according to reports. Andre Lanyon, from Guernsey, and Laura Hapgood, both 29, went to Pichilemu on Friday.

Details of Mr Sandercock and Miss Duff were posted on the missing person website Google Person Finder. The site was set up for families to post details of people missing since the earthquake on Saturday.

The Surfer's Cottage, an eco-cottage for surfers in Pichilemu, has posted details on its website of those missing. As well as the two couples, the list includes another Briton, Tina Cadwallader Lopes, who was in the resort with her Portuguese husband and two children.

The Foreign Office has so far made contact with around 100 Britons in the stricken country but said no UK casualties were reported at present.

Britons caught up in the disaster have given dramatic testimony of the moment the quake struck and the terrifying aftershocks still taking place. Briton Charlotte Mountford, who lives in a 14th-floor apartment in the Chilean capital, Santiago, spoke of the moment the quake hit. She told the BBC: "We felt the shock very keenly, it was absolutely terrifying. It felt like we were being tossed out of our beds by the shaking."

Around 1.5 million Chileans were affected by the tremors, which caused buildings and roads to collapse and left 500,000 homes severely damaged. The quake, the most powerful to hit the nation in 50 years, sent shockwaves out from the epicentre 70 miles from Chile's second city, Concepcion.