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SANTIAGO: About 5,000 homes in Chile's capital, Santiago, were destroyed by the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the central coast last month, its mayor said Wednesday.
"The (capital) metro area's assessment has been a bit misleading because we do have more damage than what at first was believed to be the case," Mayor Fernando Echeverria told reporters.
The temblor left 181 schools in the capital unusable, and shut down one hospital, he added.
Elsewhere in Chile, the non-government building group Un Techo Para Chile (A Roof Over Chile) estimates that the quake damaged beyond repair as many as 70,000 homes.
"We calculate that between 60,000 and 70,000 emergency homes need to be built in Chile," said Techo founder Felipe Barrios.
He said the group aims to build some 20,000 emergency homes before the start of the southern hemisphere winter, on June 21.
An official estimate of the homes and buildings destroyed or damaged beyond repair during last month's quake could be ready by next week, spokespersons for the housing and interior ministries told AFP.
The 8.8-magnitude quake, one of the strongest ever recorded, struck February 27 and also unleashed a deadly tsunami that ravaged several towns on the central coast.
The quake and tsunami killed some 497 people, while hundreds remain missing. Two million were left homeless mainly in central and southern coastal areas.
- AFP/sc
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