Rescue teams in Peru’s shattered earthquake zone headed home on Monday as search operations were replaced by stepped-up aid efforts and security patrols against looters. Wednesday’s powerful 8,0-magnitude temblor killed at least 503 people, and the final toll "could reach 540", civil defence officials said. About 1 600 people were injured.
Health authorities in Peru on Sunday battled the spread of infectious diseases in the wake of a devastating earthquake as President Alan Garcia threatened a curfew to stop looting. Aftershocks continued to keep people on edge. Peru’s geophysical institute reported more than 400 tremors following the quake.
Peruvians frustrated over slow emergency aid looted pharmacies and scuffled in food lines on Friday as rescuers picked through rubble for survivors two days after a massive earthquake killed at least 510 people. A powerful aftershock renewed panic on Friday and some people sprinted away from food lines in Pisco.
Peruvian rescue teams scrambled on Friday to find survivors in the disaster zone of a powerful earthquake that killed about 500 people and where an aftershock of 6,0 magnitude struck on Friday, the United States Geological Survey and witnesses said. The main quake of 8,0 magnitude hit on Wednesday.
Peruvians pulled hundreds of dead from the rubble of homes and churches on Thursday and bodies piled up on street corners after a huge earthquake ravaged the country’s central coast. CNN reported that 510 people were killed and 1 500 injured in the 8,0-magnitude quake on Wednesday night.