Meanwhile the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued an official tsunami warning notice to Chile and Peru, and a less severe tsunami "watch" notice to Ecuador. "Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said on its website. "It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter and could also be a threat to more distant coasts." It was not yet clear how big the tsunami was. The earthquake struck at around 3.34am local time (6.43GMT). Its epicentre was just 75 miles from Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river, and 60 miles from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake. Concepcion is likely to be the most severely affected city and there were radio reports of collapsed churches and other damage, although communications are severely disrupted. The quake is one of the largest in recent history. In 1960, Chile was hit by the world's biggest earthquake since records dating back to 1900. The 9.5 magnitude quake devastated the south-central city of Valdivia, killing 1,655 people and sending a tsunami which battered Easter Island 2,300 miles off Chile's Pacific seaboard and continued as far as Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines. An earthquake of magnitude 8 or over is classified as a "great" earthquake that can cause "tremendous damage," according to the US Geological Survey website. The earthquake that devastated Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12 was rated at magnitude 7.0.