Earthquake in Lima Peru

Article By Writer AP Wire Author: AP Wire
Published: August 16, 2007
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LIMA, Peru (AP)

Reports of still more dead and injured are coming in following a massive 7.9-magnitude earthquake last night in Peru.

At least 115 people were killed and more than a thousand others injured.

Seventeen of the victims were reportedly killed when a church collapsed in the city of Ica , some 165 miles south of Lima. A deputy health minister calls the situation in Ica “dramatic.” Peru’s President Alan Garcia has declared the Ica region an emergency zone and is sending in sending doctors, nurses and security personnel. People elsewhere are being urged to donate blood for the injured.

An Associated Press photographer in Lima says the quake lasted for more than two minutes, collapsing houses and sending people fleeing into the streets for safety.

The quake struck at 6:40 local time last night and was centered about 90 miles southeast of Lima. The U.S. Geological Survey says there’ve been a number of strong aftershocks.

The quake triggered a small tsunami prompting warnings and advisories from Mexico to Hawaii. But the small wave caused no damage and the advisories were all lifted.

Earthquake in Lima with 7.9 scale