© CENEight-year-old schoolboy Carlos Perez, who appeared to predict the Chilean earthquake in an essay he wrote just hours before it struck
- Eight-year-old Carlos Perez wrote an essay while at school on Wednesday
- Wrote about a tsunami in Chile which he handed in to his teacher in red ink
- Just hours later an earthquake struck Santiago also causing a tsunami
- Carlos sister Stefani said her brother had felt like it was going to happen
Carlos Perez, a pupil at the Parish School in San Juan, Argentina, penned the essay called 'Tsunami in Chile' at school last Wednesday.
He said that he had a feeling that the quake and tsunami was going to happen and wrote the passage just hours before one million were forced to flee their homes.
Carlos, who underlined the title in red ink, wrote: 'There was a tsunami in Chile. Some Chileans manged to save themselves in a helicopter in the sky.'
His essay was accompanied with drawings of houses affected by flooding.
And just hours later a quake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale hit the Chilean capital Santiago, which is the largest in the world so far this year.
A tsunami quickly followed, sending powerful waves flooding into coastal cities around the Pacific Ocean.
Carlos' elder sister Stefani said: 'When my brother showed me the notebook [one day later], I started to cry.
'I asked him why he had written this and he told me "I don't know."
'It occurred to me at once he had predicted it. It was like he felt it was going to happen and I could not believe it.'
The quake in Santiago made buildings sway in Chilean capital, where terrified residents were seen gathering in the streets to avoid falling debris.
Violent aftershocks continued shaking the South American country the next morning as residents picked through the rubble of destroyed buildings.
© CENCarlos wrote the passage called 'Tsunami in Chile', which he underlined in red ink and passed on to his teacher
It was felt as far away as Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has promised financial help for the victims of the quake saying the government would give one-time payments to affected families of $1500 to rebuild homes and another $700 to replace lost goods.
© Associated PressA man stands near a fishing boat that was lifted and carried ashore during a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Chile last week
If this young man had written this in a U.S. school and an earthquake subsequently hit California, the young man would be promptly arrested for causing the earthquake.