With heat detectors and sniffer dogs, the expert teams methodically searched through the chaos of the massive building which was thrown flat on its back by the force of Saturday's 8.8-magnitude quake.

"There are believed to be 48 people trapped inside who we believe are alive," firefighter and team leader Ignacio Carrizo told AFP.

"We are working hard and we will not rest until we get them all out," pledged Francisco Contreras, another firefighter.

Rescue efforts in this city of half a million were focused on the giant ochre building in the city center whose many floors lay horizontally instead of vertically with furniture and belongings piled up on the walls.

Teams made their way slowly through each floor, digging small holes and lowering detection equipment in the hopes of picking up signs of life.

"Time is of the essence to save the people inside this building," mayor Jacqueline van Rysselberghe told national television. "It's a shame that rescue teams could not come to Concepcion yesterday."

Eight bodies were recovered from the building on Saturday, Carrizo said, but reported cries for help overnight had given the following day's efforts a renewed sense of urgency.

In other parts of Concepcion looters ran amok as they grabbed all they could carry from shops and businesses reduced to rubble by one of the most powerful earthquakes on record.

Frustrated authorities declared a curfew to try to curb the lawlessness in the surrounding Maule region and Concepcion province, whose coastal areas were walloped by a giant tsunami wave after the quake.

While rescuers searched on, the people of Concepcion and the surrounding suburbs sought desperately to respond to the larger-scale emergency by stocking up on supplies of basic products like water, milk and rice.

Residents and looters gathered as many bottles of water or food supplies as their arms could carry, and if they felt they needed more some even filled up shopping trollies.

"I have four babies," explained a woman with bags of disposable nappies stuffed in her vest after rushing into the Unimarc supermarket through a window, apparently broken by nearby men with clubs and stones.

Police looked on passively as looters inside threw bottles of oil and boxes of jam to others who remained outside.

"It's not theft, it's desperation. We no longer have anything to eat or drink," a woman in her 30s shouted to a Chilean television reporter as a Lider supermarket in the center of Concepcion was cleared of all its goods.

"It's for my children, it's the only way to feed them," a man said as he struggled to force open a shop's metallic grille.

Police fired tear-gas and water cannons to disperse clusters of looters trying to empty a shop storeroom of its wares in another part of the city.

Van Rysselberghe warned against serious "social tension" in the city after Saturday's quake, which killed more than 700 people, according to the latest official toll.

"We need food for the population. We are without supplies, and if we don't resolve that we are going to have serious security problems during the night," the mayor said.

"We are at the end of the month, there are no stocks in the households. But nothing justifies looting, vandalism and theft. We have seen people coming out of supermarkets with plasma (TV) screens."

Chilean television pictures also showed groups of youths fleeing with TVs and appliances.

"If we don't resolve this problem of food today, we could have a very confrontational situation," the mayor warned.

As the rain fell under a gray sky, Concepcion was a scene of utter devastation with some rows of buildings totally collapsed and cars lying crushed by large chunks of debris.

The city was partly cut off from the outside world with no electricity and patchy telephone communications.

Adding to the tension, aftershocks -- well over 100 since Saturday -- continued to shake buildings already teetering after the worst disaster to hit Chile in 50 years.

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