Fears of a fresh tsunami sent thousands of panicked Chileans fleeing coastal towns Wednesday as the toll from last weekend's deadly waves climbed in this once popular holiday spot.

As daily tremors revive the trauma of Saturday's powerful quake and tsunami that claimed some 800 lives countrywide, wailing sirens and cries of "Tsunami! Run" sent crowds scurrying, heading for the hills overlooking Constitucion.

Hundreds of cars, waved on by troops stationed along the main road, screeched out town, stopping only when well above the area, one of the worst-hit by the weekend disaster.

"We were driving into town but people waved us to go back, saying a tsunami was on the way," said Ignacio Guttieres of Chile TV.

Nelson Muna and Patricia Salgado had driven in offering water and food to the thousands left homeless without power, water or food.

"We were handing out supplies and saw everyone running and screaming 'tsunami' -- even soldiers were running -- and dropped everything and ran," said Muna. "I still feel so scared," said Salgado, shaking from head to foot.

"Keep calm, it's a false alert," said national radio, which is playing a frontline role in keeping the country abreast of news. "There is no tsunami."

Saturday's tsunami has claimed more lives than the earthquake, with some 600 dead along the central southern coast, the officer in charge of emergency operations, General Bosco Pesse, told AFP.

A handwritten list on a large white board propped against the morgue fence here Wednesday showed 78 dead, including seven unidentified corpses in advanced stages of decomposition -- listed as "NN", or "No Name".

The previous evening the toll from the three giant waves that crashed through town in the early hours of Saturday stood at 51.

"We're expecting more," said army Lieutenant Gutierrez. "Most of the corpses are badly bloated and mutilated, difficult to identify. The stench is terrible."

At Constitucion town hall, the mayor's head of staff Ricardo Valdes said 100 people had died and at least 300 remained missing.

"Ninety percent of the old part of the town was destroyed," he told AFP, estimating that between 10,000 and 20,000 of the town's population had lost their homes.

At the morgue, groups of townspeople, most wearing face masks to ward off the stench hanging over the streets, streamed to the board to check the whereabouts of family, friends and neighbors.

In the carpark a bus was stacked with 15 brand-new wooden coffins, a donation from the city council, said a sign scrawled on a piece of cardboard.

A dog by the gate began barking incessantly when four Chilean forensic officers in white overalls exited the cold-room hauling four body-bags to load them into a refrigerated truck outside.

"We need to make room for more," said an officer. "I think the dog is reacting to the smell of death."

Constitucion is one of the worst-hit areas along the coast, where three successive massive waves literally wiped away entire villages and smashed street after street to rubble as it powered into the onetime holiday paradise.

In devastated streets, men cleared rubble with shovels and pushed wheelbarrows as army helicopters hovered overhead bringing rescue workers and aid for the thousands left without water, food, medicine and power.

Part of the cemetery wall collapsed, leaving old coffins poking through the wall, revealing a skeleton inside one.

A fishing boat plucked by the sea that landed atop a ruined house testifies to the power of the water that crashed into town.

At the gates of the morgue, a young woman in tears came looking for her husband's uncle, a middle-aged man with a paralyzed leg whose home on the frontline of the tsunami's path is nothing but a pile of rubble.

"We've looked everywhere, asked the neighbors, no one's seen him," said Maxima Moreno Valdevenido.

A forensic officer gave her a mask and took her kindly in to see the unclaimed bodies, explaining first that the state of the corpses was hard to see.

"We're not sure, there's a tall man inside but he was so bloated, so disfigured, we're not sure. They're checking his fingerprints," she sobbed.

Minutes later, the officer exited with a positive identification and she again broke into tears.

"I have to go and rummage through what's left of his things to try to find some proof of identification so I can claim the body and bury it," she said.