- News>
- World
Major quake kills at least 47 in Peru, govt declares emergency
A major earthquake measuring 7.9 magnitude struck southern Peru on Saturday, killing at least 47 people and injuring about 550, civil defence officials said. The government has declared a state of emergency to deal with the situation.
A major earthquake measuring 7.9 magnitude struck southern Peru on Saturday, killing at least 47 people and injuring about 550, civil defence officials said. The government has declared a state of emergency to deal with the situation.
President Valentin Paniagua set off to the zone of destruction around Moquegua, 856 miles south of Lima, and Arequipa, Peru`s second largest city 630 miles south of the capital, but was forced to turn back shortly after take-off by technical trouble.
President-elect Alejandro Toledo said that he had postponed a trip to the United States on Sunday to "extend a hand of solidarity" to the suffering. He told local radio station that Paniagua was setting out again on Saturday night and they would meet in the disaster zone on Sunday.
Civil defence spokesman Jorge Arguera told media that 22 people had died in Arequipa, 16 in Moquegua and nine in Tacna, some 810 miles south of Lima. He said the toll could rise. "There is an enormous quantity of injured and the dead are literally thrown about on the ground," said an RPP radio reporter in Moquegua, a small town with cobbled streets and mud adobe houses, where 20 to 25 people were reported injured.
In Arequipa -- dubbed "the white city" for its fine colonial architecture and beautiful churches -- the number of injured reached about 200, civil defense spokesman Juan Carlos Puertocarrero said. Television pictures showed piles of masonry blocking the sidewalks.
Puertocarrero said another 200 or so people were injured in Tacna, where more than half the city`s homes were reported damaged. Peruvian officials said that the earthquake measured 6.0 on the Richter scale but the US Geological Survey reported it as magnitude 7.9. It was Peru`s strongest quake since May 1970, when a quake of the same magnitude killed 70,000 and left some 600,000 homeless.
The quake struck at 3:33 pm. Its epicenter was 51 miles northwest of the southern town of Ocona, Peru`s Geophysical Institute said.
According to Moquegua residents, a landslide blocked one of the town`s chief roads and many houses collapsed. "We have nowhere to escape to," one man told RPP. Many residents took to the streets, preparing to spend the night outside in parks and other secure areas, the radio said. "Some 90 percent of houses in Chuquibamba, (near Moquegua) were destroyed," Puertocarrero said.
Bureau Report
President-elect Alejandro Toledo said that he had postponed a trip to the United States on Sunday to "extend a hand of solidarity" to the suffering. He told local radio station that Paniagua was setting out again on Saturday night and they would meet in the disaster zone on Sunday.
Civil defence spokesman Jorge Arguera told media that 22 people had died in Arequipa, 16 in Moquegua and nine in Tacna, some 810 miles south of Lima. He said the toll could rise. "There is an enormous quantity of injured and the dead are literally thrown about on the ground," said an RPP radio reporter in Moquegua, a small town with cobbled streets and mud adobe houses, where 20 to 25 people were reported injured.
In Arequipa -- dubbed "the white city" for its fine colonial architecture and beautiful churches -- the number of injured reached about 200, civil defense spokesman Juan Carlos Puertocarrero said. Television pictures showed piles of masonry blocking the sidewalks.
Puertocarrero said another 200 or so people were injured in Tacna, where more than half the city`s homes were reported damaged. Peruvian officials said that the earthquake measured 6.0 on the Richter scale but the US Geological Survey reported it as magnitude 7.9. It was Peru`s strongest quake since May 1970, when a quake of the same magnitude killed 70,000 and left some 600,000 homeless.
The quake struck at 3:33 pm. Its epicenter was 51 miles northwest of the southern town of Ocona, Peru`s Geophysical Institute said.
According to Moquegua residents, a landslide blocked one of the town`s chief roads and many houses collapsed. "We have nowhere to escape to," one man told RPP. Many residents took to the streets, preparing to spend the night outside in parks and other secure areas, the radio said. "Some 90 percent of houses in Chuquibamba, (near Moquegua) were destroyed," Puertocarrero said.
Bureau Report