UN chief Ban Ki-moon visits quake-hit Chile city

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has visited a Chilean city badly damaged by last week's earthquake and promised aid to help the country recover.

Mr Ban flew into Concepcion aboard a Chilean Air Force plane and was shown a 15-storey building that had collapsed, killing at least nine people.

As the clear-up continues, doctors have warned that debris piled up in towns and cities poses a health hazard.

The official death toll stands at 452 but hundreds are still missing.

"Remember that we are with you... our hearts are with you," Mr Ban said in a brief statement in Concepcion.

"Your people helped Haiti when it was in need - now is the moment when the international community must help Chile," he said.

Unclean water

After returning to the capital Santiago, Mr Ban said Chile would receive field hospitals, temporary bridges and other international aid that the government needs.

Meanwhile, doctors say cases of diarrhoea are increasing among people drinking unclean water, and they are treating injuries caused by people trying to get through the debris.

"We are going to keep needing water, electric systems, a functioning sewage system," said Gaston Saavedra, mayor of the port city of Talcahuano which was badly damaged by the quake and tsunami. We need to clean up rotting fish in the streets. We need chemical toilets, and when it starts raining, people living in tents are going to get wet and sick. All this is going to cause infections," he added.

The Chilean health ministry said that so far there had been no outbreaks of dysentery or other communicable diseases and it has enough tetanus and hepatitis vaccinations for the areas worst affected.

Chile has been hit by regular aftershocks since the 8.8-magnitude quake last week, including at least six on Saturday morning, the largest of which measured 5.1.

Government officials have also struggled to determine the death toll, announcing that they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead.

On Friday the figure was revised down from about 800 to 452.