Rescuers race to find Peru quake survivors

PISCO, Peru, Saturday (AFP) - Rescuers in Peru early today sifted through rubble in search for victims of an earthquake that killed 500 people as President Alan Garcia surveyed the devastation in this Peruvian town. Rescue teams including Spanish specialists with sniffer dogs combed through the wreckage while desperate survivors looted food trucks and tempers frayed over the slow arrival of emergency aid two days after the massive quake.

People standing in front of destroyed houses in Pisco as a powerful aftershock rattled Peru sowing panic as rescue teams and volunteers scrambled to find survivors of a massive earthquake earlier this week that killed about 500 people. REUTERS

Garcia warned that the death toll given by firefighters of at least 500 could rise as an unknown number of bodies were trapped beneath the remains of collapsed buildings following Wednesday's magnitude 8.0 earthquake, the most severe to hit the region in decades.

Sure enough, three more bodies were carried out of San Clemente, the town's main church, and laid out on the town square for their families to identify, an AFP reporter at the scene reported. One woman burst into tears as she recognised a dead relative. Another strong tremor measuring 5.9 was registered near the coast of central Peru late yesterday, the US government reported.
The epicenter of the quake that occurred at 9:52 pm (0252 GMT Saturday) was located offshore, 36 kilometres (23 miles) south of the town of Chincha Alta, said the US Geological Survey.

No reports of casualties or damage were immediately available. Rattled by aftershocks and cut off from most of the world, survivors looted trucks carrying food and water and a crowd of 2,000 gathered in the town square of Chincha, screaming at officials who were unable to tell them when help would begin to trickle in.

Garcia visited the coastal town of Pisco – the area hardest hit by the quake – and said he was there when a body was recovered from the church, which had collapsed as hundreds of mourners attended a funeral service.“According to rescuers and firefighters, there are still dozens of bodies below” the rubble, he said.

Lacking official figures, news media estimate the number of people affected by the quake at anywhere from 60,000 and 200,000, with many tens of thousands believed to have lost their homes.