LIMA- A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck on Friday off the southern coast of Peru, in the department of Arequipa, causing at least eight injuries and minor damage, according to Peruvian authorities.
The quake struck at a depth of 42 km at 00:36 local time (05:36 GMT) about 8 km off the coast of Caravelí, 780 km south of Lima, the Peruvian Geophysical Institute (IGP) reported.
The USGS, for its part, recorded a magnitude of 7.2 and ruled out the risk of a tsunami.
“It was horrible, first we felt a blow to the ground, we thought it would calm down, but nothing. At the time, we couldn’t go out because the house was like jelly,” Juan de la Cadena, a olive seller in the affected area.
The earthquake caused eight injuries, five of them in the city of Ica and the town of Acari, the Peruvian Ministry of Health reported in its account X.
Five of the injured were treated in hospitals in the first city, and the rest received “outpatient care” at the Acarí health center, the agency said.
The Navy’s Directorate of Hydrography and Navigation issued a tsunami warning, which was lifted.
The shock was felt in Lima and much of the southern and central coast of the country.
The town of Chala, with a population of around 10,000, is 41 km from the epicentre, and the village of Yauca, with a population of 2,000, is also in the area.
The mayor of Yauca, Juan Aranguren, told RPP radio that in his town “there are some walls of houses that have fallen” and that the Pan-American Highway has been affected by some cracks.
By midday on Friday, up to 16 aftershocks had been recorded in the area since the powerful quake, but only half a dozen “caused ground shaking,” said the head of the IGP, Hernando Tavera.
It has been a “quite intense movement (…), which has caused the population to leave their homes,” he added.
Delivery of aid
The regional government of Arequipa reported 14 homes affected by cracks in the earthquake zone, where most buildings are made of adobe.
Six schools also suffered damage to their infrastructure in Caravelí and Yauca.
The Ministry of Transport reported that traffic has returned to normal after roads blocked by a landslide of land and rocks in the Arequipa region were cleared.
This Friday the head of the cabinet, Gustavo Adrianzén, and the Minister of Defense, Walter Astudillo, traveled to the area on a military plane to deliver aid.
“We have been able to inform the president (Dina Boluarte, on an official visit to China) that there are no fatalities, we have some injured, all of whom have already been discharged, we have verified some damage,” Adrianzén told the press from Yauca.
The regional government of Arequipa announced the suspension of classes throughout the province of Caravelí as a preventive measure.
Peru, with some 33 million inhabitants, is located on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, which extends along the American west coast and the Asian east coast.
The highest seismic activity in the world is recorded in these regions. Every year, in Peru alone, at least a hundred earthquakes perceptible to the population are recorded.
Source: With information from AFP
