Peru Declares Quake-hit Area Disaster Zone, Appeals for Aid

Authorities in southern Peru have declared the earthquake-hit region a disaster zone and launched an immediate appeal for food, medicine, blankets and other forms of humanitarian aid.

A powerful earthquake hit southern Peru and parts of Chile and Bolivia at 3:40 p.m. local time (2040 GMT) Saturday with its epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, some 750 kilometers southeast of Lima, killing at least 39 people and injuring nearly 400 others.

Peru's Geophysical Institute said the quake had a magnitude of 6.0 on the Richter scale, but the US Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center based in Golden, Colorado, said the tremor measured 7.9 degree, one of the strongest in recent years.

Peruvian President Valentin Paniagua was heading to the southern stricken area to organize rescue operation, the Secretariat of Peruvian Presidency announced, saying he will set up a command post in the southern city of Arequipa to conduct the rescue mission.

The powerful quake cut off telephone lines in some southern regions of Peru, and caused thousands of people to abandon their homes in panic.

It was followed by two moderate seisms both measuring 3 on the Richter scale and shaking the northern town of Piura Saturday night, the Geophysical Institute said, adding that there were no immediate reports of causalities or material damage from the two shocks.

Peruvian Telefone Company, branch of Spanish giant Telefonica Company, announced that the major earthquake has broken the optic fiber near the town of Ocona, which reduced by 50 percent the telephone communication between Lima and southern Peruvian cities.

Meanwhile, the company said that a submarine cable near the Chilean city of Arica also was cut off by the seism, which affects severely communications between Peru and Chile.

Peru's Radioprogram reported that 35 people had died in Moquegua alone, but the figure could not be immediately confirmed.

The Geophysical Institute confirmed that 17 residents of Arequipa were crushed dead by their collapsed houses and more than 170 other townspeople were injured.

In the city of Moquegua, some 100 kilometers southwest of Arequipa, it said, 14 people perished and another dozens were injured.

In Tacna, a city near the border with Chile, Mayor Luis Torres told Radioprogram that the major quake has claimed at least eight lives and injured 200 others.

The quake cut off telephone lines in some southern regions of Peru and sent thousands of residents fleeing their homes in panic.

The quake, which lasted for more than 60 seconds in Peru and 30 to 40 seconds in neighboring Bolivia, was also felt in Lima and some distant Bolivian cities.

In Chile, the most affected city was Arica, 2,000 kilometers north of Santiago, the country's capital.

Chile's Emergency Office spokeswoman Carmen Fernandez said some houses were damaged in the city and power supplies and telephone services were interrupted.






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