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Peru quake toll tops 500
17/08/2007 07:27 - (SA)
Reynaldo Munoz
Lima - Hundreds of aftershocks rumbled through earthquake-devastated zones in southern Peru on Thursday, as rescuers rushed to dig survivors out from under collapsed buildings and offers of aid poured in from around the world.
"The toll has jumped to between 500 and 510 dead and 1 600 injured," the head of the country's firefighter service, Roberto Ocno, told AFP from Peru's southern coastal area, struck late on Wednesday by a massive tremor.
"There are dead trapped under houses," he said. "There are several bodies in the streets, people who may have died from heart attacks."
The US Geological Survey (USGS) on Thursday upgraded the quake to a rare 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale, as the Peruvian government said helicopters and planes were airlifting emergency aid to the hard-hit coastal towns.
National mourning
President Alan Garcia, who visited the stricken area on Thursday, declared three days of national mourning for the earthquake victims, closing all public buildings including schools, military bases and museums.
Buildings collapsed, major highways to the coast were torn asunder and power lines knocked out by the quake, leaving overwhelmed local officials issuing urgent appeals for help.
"We have hundreds of dead lying in the streets, and injured people in the hospital. It is totally indescribable," said Juan Mendoza, the mayor of Pisco, which appeared to have suffered the worst damage from the quake.
"Seventy percent of the town is devastated," Mendoza said. "We don't have water, no communications, the houses are collapsed, the churches are destroyed," he said, adding his town of 130 000 urgently needed medical help.
Church collapsed during mass
Rescuers on Thursday pulled six survivors from the church of San Clemente which collapsed during a funeral mass packed with mourners. Many dead were still believed to be lying under the rubble.
An AFP reporter saw some 50 corpses on a Pisco sidewalk covered with blankets, as shocked survivors numbly surveyed the chaos that was wrought in just a matter of minutes.
Elsewhere in Peru, the quake claimed two lives in Lima from heart attacks as tens of thousands spent the night on the streets fearing more tremors.
Tsunamis flooded fishing villages on the Paracas bay, causing some damage, according to the locals.
And in Chincha, some 600 inmates fled the local penitentiary after the quake struck, authorities said.
Aftershocks
Jittery nerves sometimes bordering panic attacks affected earthquake survivors and rescuers alike as more than 300 aftershocks, some as powerful as six degrees on the Richter scale, shook Peru after the main earthquake.
Aftershocks "can last up to three weeks" after a quake of Wednesday's magnitude, said Geophysical Institute of Peru expert Hernan Talavera.
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