Chilean troops on alert for post-quake looters

DOZENS of looters were arrested yesterday as they scavenged among the wreckage of the massive Chilean earthquake that has killed at least 723 people.

In Concepcion, the city closest to the epicentre, police held 55 people for violating a curfew imposed after looters sacked nearly every market in town. The first of thousands of troops dispatched to maintain order began to arrive.

At least a few looters re-emerged to rob a market despite orders placing the city’s security under military command. Rescuers found signs of life in the wreckage of a 15-storey building yesterday as the world offered aid to victims.