On its social media account, Chile's SENAPRED emergency agency warned of a tsunami risk and urged evacuation of the Magallanes coast. Meanwhile, on its X social media account, Chilean President Gabriel Boric reiterated his call to evacuate coastal areas throughout the Magallanes region.

SENAPRED calls on people to stay calm and follow the instructions of the authorities and response teams: "When evacuating, do not forget to pay attention to pets and their needs."

The earthquake occurred at 9:58 a.m. on May 2 (local time, or 7:58 p.m. the same day Vietnam time) and was followed by a number of smaller aftershocks.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake had a depth of 10 km, with its epicenter located more than 200 km from the city of Ushuaia in the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego and a similar distance from the Chilean town of Puerto Williams. The magnitude of the quake was determined to be 7.4, lower than the 7.5 reported by Chile's National Seismological Center. Residents of the village of Puerto Almanza, southern Argentina, were ordered to evacuate the area due to the risk of a tsunami.

Evacuation operations are underway along Chile's southern coast after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami warning near the Strait of Magellan (Photo: X)

Within the next 15 minutes, USGS recorded three more aftershocks with magnitudes of 5.4, 5.7 and 5.6 in the same area.

The US Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement that tsunami waves were possible within 300 km of the earthquake's epicenter.

Videos on social media showed people calmly evacuating as sirens wailed.

Located at the southern tip of South America, the Magallanes region is Chile's second largest, but sparsely populated, region and borders the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego.

Chile is one of the countries most affected by earthquakes because it sits at the intersection of the Nazca, South American and Antarctic tectonic plates. In 1960, the southern Chilean city of Valdivia was devastated by a magnitude 9.5 earthquake - considered the strongest earthquake ever recorded - that killed 9,500 people. In 2010, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off the coast of central Chile, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 520 people.