Strong earthquake shakes Peru's capital

Gulf Today Report

A strong earthquake of magnitude 5.7 struck near the coast of Peru late on Tuesday, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said.

The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), GFZ said.

Travellers take in the classic Machu Picchu view at the site’s ancient guardhouse in Peru. File photo

Peru's Seismological Center said it was magnitude 6, while the US Geological Survey which monitors earthquakes worldwide pegged it at magnitude 5.8, according to AFP.

It struck at 9:54 pm local time (0254 GMT Wednesday), with an epicenter 33 kilometers southwest of Mala — some 100 kilometres south of Lima — and at a depth of 32 kilometres, the Seismological Centre said.

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Crowds of residents in Lima — home to 9.7 million people, nearly one-third of Peru's population — flooded the city streets when the quake struck.

Peruvian monitors said there was no risk of a tsunami.

"It was one of the strongest earthquakes that has been felt in Lima in past years," said Hernando Tavera, head of Peru's Geophysical Institute.

"It was a quake of significant magnitude, we are expecting aftershocks," he added.

Mala Mayor Sonia Ramos told RPP radio that city officials were inspecting for damage and victims. Phone lines were temporarily interrupted to the city of 32,000 inhabitants.

"People are out in the street, there are reports of people who have fainted from shock," Ramos said.

In Lima, some rocks fell from 80-metre tall cliffs along the Costa Verde, where a busy road below hugs the city's beaches, according to local television.

Peru is rattled by dozens of earthquakes of varying strength each year as it is located in the Pacific ring of fire, a particularly seismically active region where the Earth's tectonic plates collide.

In the Americas the ring runs along the whole Pacific coastline, from Alaska to southern Chile.