In pictures: Chile earthquake

A massive earthquake measuring 8.8 magnitude hit Chile in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The quake was one of the biggest ever recorded, and was the strongest Chile had seen in 50 years. Here authorities search for survivors.

The damage from the earthquake has been huge, and at least 300 people have been killed.

One of the main problems was being able to communicate with people across the country, because telephone and electricity lines came down in the tremor.

Soon after the earthquake struck, some people began to go into damaged shops and steal the goods inside. The police have been trying to stop them.

The earthquake triggered massive waved throughout the Pacific Ocean. Experts like this one had to watch the waves carefully, in case they hit other countries.

Some coastal areas in Japan were evacuated and people took shelter in emergency centres.

Chile gets a lot of earthquakes. The biggest one of the 20th century struck the city of Valdivia in 1960.

The earthquake is stronger than the one that hit Haiti in January. But Chile is a richer country and the emergency services have responded more quickly to the disaster.

Travel through the affected areas in Chile has become very difficult because roads are damaged and some bridges, like this one, have fallen down.

Here a man carries his belongings down the stairs in his apartment block. The outside wall of the building came down in the quake.

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