Northern Chile was banged on Thursday by two new earthquakes, the first a 6.2 Richter-scale quake and the second a stronger 6.8 Richter-scale quake, Chile's University Seismic Institute reported on Thursday.

 

Northern Chile was banged on Thursday by two new earthquakes, the first a 6.2 Richter-scale quake and the second a stronger 6.8 Richter-scale quake, Chile's University Seismic Institute reported on Thursday.

 

The aftershocks came one day after the country was struck by a 7.7 magnitude temblor that killed two people and left thousands homeless.

 

The Institute said that the first occurred at 12:03 local time (15:03 GMT) and the second 10 minutes later.

 

On Thursday, President Michelle Bachelet's life was endangered while she was at the site of Wednesday's 7.7 Richter-scale quake.

 

The strong replicas surprised the Chilean President in northern Chilean city of Tocopilla on Thursday when she was visiting the affected regions, Chile's Emergency National Office (Onemi) reported on Thursday, although it has not reported damages nor victims for Thursday's two quakes.

 

The people around Bachelet reacted with panic, but Bachelet asked them to calm down, while her jittery bodyguards moved Bachelet away to safety from a dangerous public light post.

 

Bachelet was meeting local Tocopilla residents in a neighborhood affected by Wednesday strong quake.

 

Chile and even Peru suffered intense seismic activity throughout Thursday morning, where Peru was hit by a 4.2 Richter-scale quake in Nazca city, without causing victims nor material damages.

 

Bachelet is touring the regions affected by Wednesday's strong quake, that according to Onemi officials left two fatal victims, 157 injured and 15,000 victims.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2007)