Peru quake kills hundreds
Updated on 16 August 2007
In Lima office workers ran on to the streets as two shockwaves of about thirty seconds each shook buildings and cut off power.
The earthquake struck Peru at 6.40 in the evening. The epicentre was just off the Peruvian coast in the Pacific Ocean about 90 miles south of Lima. The US geological survey measured it at 7.9.
The worst hit area is the province of Ica, along the southern coastline.
Rescuers struggled to move south toward Ica as parts of the Pan-American Highway, a key coastal route, have become impassable.
One bridge along the route - over the Pisco River - is said to have collapsed.
The main tower of the Señor de Luren church in the city of Ica is said to have collapsed trapping four people, otherwise the information from the worst hit area is still scant.
Many people are still afraid to return inside.
Earthquakes have struck here before, in 1970 one of the world's deadliest known earthquakes killed an estimated fifty thousand people.
The President of Peru, Alan Garcia, has declared a state of emergency in the province of Ica.
The national defence agency which is leading the rescue effort says that so far three hundred and thirty people are known to have been killed.
