SANTIAGO - More heavy aftershocks shook northern Chile Sunday following last week's deadly 7.7-magnitude earthquake, as the government said it was working to restore water supplies and to prevent disease outbreaks.
Two moderate shocks registering 5.5-5.6 on the moment magnitude scale hit early Sunday, one east of Arica close to the border of Peru, and a second offshore 60 kilometers (40 miles) north-northwest of the coastal city of Antofagasta, the US Geological Survey, which monitors events worldwide, reported.
To the north in Peru, a temblor hit the southern province of Pisco, near Ica, which was already hard hit by an August 15 quake, the Geophysical Institute of Peru said.
The temblor in Peru hit at 1234 GMT and there were no immediate reports of injuries. The city of Tacna near the Chilean border meanwhile was rocked by a 5.4 quake on the Richter scale.
Saturday, eight quakes were registered between 4.6 and 6.0 magnitude in the Antofagasta area, according to the USGS.
Two people were killed and some 15,000 injured and 4,000 structures damaged in Wednesday's major quake.
On Sunday Chile's National Emergencies Office said it was restoring water services in the affected region, but that supplies would be rationed to prevent heavily damaged pipes from collapsing, especially in Tocopilla, a port town of 24,000 inhabitants, one of the worst hit by the quake.
Water was being trucked in and health officials were arranging vaccinations for Hepatitis A for children in the area.
Meanwhile, up the Pacific coast in Ecuador, just the rumor that an earthquake had hit there Sunday prompted locals in the town of Esmeraldas to panic, many of them taking to the streets.
Local media reported that one person died of a heart attack there after someone drove by on a motorbike inaccurately warning townspeople a tsunami was coming.
Ecuador's Geophysical Institute took the unusual step of denying that an earthquake hit it on Sunday.
Naval oceanographer Mario Proano also took to Ecuador's television airwaves to deny that authorities determined a tsunami would hit Ecuador's coast.
In Peru, Pisco was devastated by August's earthquake which jolted Peruvian cities near Peru's coast from Ica, to Chincha, Canete and Lima.
It left a total 595 people dead, 300 people missing and some 300,000 people homeless.
11/19/2007 00:41