7.9 Earthquake Hit Peru, 40 Dead

Earthquake hit the southern areas of Peru, killing at least 40 people and injuring hundreds on Saturday afternoon. The Chile government announced that 30 people were injured, four of them seriously.

According to the US National Earthquake Information Centre in Golden, Colorado, it had a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale in the Pacific Ocean close to the Peruvian coast around 3:33 pm on Saturday. At least 17 people had died and 170 had been injured in the country`s second city, Arequipa - 750km south-east of Lima - while at least 14 had been killed in Moquegua, 100km further south, announced the Peruvian government officials.

Television pictures showed that one of the towers of the city`s cathedral, designated as the national heritage by the UNESCO, had collapsed, scattering rubble in the street, and another was badly damaged and threatening to fall. Peru was once battered by a strong 7.7 magnitude tremor on May 31, 1970, that killed approximately 70,000 people. (Lima AP)