Kristalina Georgieva, Bulgaria’s European Commissioner, has described the moments as she and other VIPs were shaken when a 7.2 Richter scale earthquake hit Chile as the country’s new president, Sebastián Piñera, prepared to take office.
 
"Be careful what you wish for," Georgieva wrote in her latest blog, on March 12 2010.
 
"In my last blog entry I quoted Borja, an ECHO colleague, who said that if there were a place to go through a strong earthquake, this place was Chile. Well, Borja´s wish came true. We experienced a 7.2 earthquake – in my case, while I was in the Hall of Honour of the Chilean Parliament waiting for the start of the Presidential hand-over ceremony I was attending on behalf of the European Commission," said Georgieva, who was in the country in her capacity as Commissioner for International Co-operation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.
 
"Suddenly, the floor started to move, the lamps on the ceiling trembled and the flowers that decorated the presidential table began to shake. There were at least three shocks, and the third quake felt like the strongest of all," she said, but, "there was no sense of panic among those present".
 
"Some of my neighbours were speculating on the magnitude of the earthquake while the sound system of the Parliament just announced that ‘if you were to leave the room you would be duly informed’. It was not necessary because the Palace of the Parliament, like most of Chile, is built to last."
 
So is democracy in Chile, Georgieva said.
 
"Not even a 7.2 earthquake could prevent the inauguration of the new president and a cheering crowd from celebrating yet another democratic handover of power," she said.
 
"It was a moving ceremony, in many ways. It was a lesson of democracy, a symbol of national unity, and a strong vote of confidence of the Chilean people in the competence of their authorities."
 
Media reports said that the earthquake was centred in Chile's Libertador O'Higgins region, about 145km southwest of the capital, Santiago. 
 
It was one of the strongest aftershocks to hit the nation since an 8.8-magnitude earthquake in late February, leaving about 500 people dead. 
After the ceremony Piñera took a helicopter tour of quake-affected areas, including the coastal town of Constitucion, which was ruined in the initial quake, the Voice of America said.
 
Meanwhile, Georgieva will be in Sofia on March 15, news agency Focus said, with an agenda including a meeting with Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, followed by a news conference, and a meeting with the Bulgarian Red Cross to discuss topical humanitarian aid and crisis response issues.