SANTIAGO, Chile — A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, killing at least 78 people, collapsing buildings and setting off a tsunami.

Chilean TV showed devastating images from the country's second city of Concepcion of collapsed homes, a large building completely engulfed in flames and injured people lying in the streets or on stretchers. It said the earthquake destroyed many roads, making it impossible for vehicles to get through, and there was no electricity or water.

Tsunami warnings were issued over a wide area, including South America, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Russia and many Pacific islands.

A huge wave reached a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles off the Chilean coast, said President Michele Bachelet. There were no immediate reports of major damage there, she added.

Bachelet said the death toll was at 78 and rising, but officials had no information on the number of people injured. She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile.

Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast — 19 of them magnitude 5 or greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 — the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Bachelet urged people to avoid traveling, since traffic lights are down, to avoid causing more fatalities.

In the capital, Santiago airport was shut down and will remain closed for at least the next 24 hours, airport director Eduardo del Canto said. The passenger terminal has suffered major damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone interview. TV images show smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.

In Concepcion, nurses and residents pushed some of the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms.

Residents were rummaging through rubble in the coastal city of Santo Domingo, in the region of Valparaiso. One resident said 40 buildings had collapsed but that he didn't believe there were any deaths.

In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed.