People working at city company Oriflame are raising money for their sister company in Chile which had its offices destroyed in the recent earthquakes.

The staff are now planning to hold a fundraising day in the office on March 16 where they will be asked to dress up and pay a contribution to the cause.

Those staff who don't dress up will be asked to pay more.
To further boost the funds staff will be asking their 8,000 consultants and their customers to help as well.

So far Oriflame staff and families in Chile are thought to be fine, but UK officials are still to get in contact with employees closer to the affected areas because the phone lines there are down.

And they have had no contact with Temuco or Concepcion where there are service centres. Around 90 aftershocks have been felt so far, however the authorities in Chile are expecting around 200 in total over the next few days.

One Oriflame employee working in Chile, speaking just one day after the February 27 disaster, said: "This was the worst earthquake in my personal history. My family is OK but we are in turmoil and we are
panicking.

"We were two hours south of Santiago and the earthquake measured 8.5 there, close to the beach. All of our flat walls and windows collapsed at 3.40am so we were sleeping in the car until daybreak."

Oriflame Chile has not yet been able to contact all employees from Concepcion ISC, which was closest to the epicenter.