450 Killed in Peru Quake

At least 450 people have been killed and more than 1,500 injured after a powerful earthquake hit the coast of Peru today.

The quake - which measured 7.9 on the Richter scale and struck near the capital, Lima - toppled buildings, set off landslides and generated a tsunami alert that was later lifted.

The UN said Peruvian government figures suggested that at least 450 people had been killed and more than 1,500 injured.

AFP reported that Roberto Ocano, the head of the country's firefighter service, said at least 387 people had died, with around 1,050 injured.

Earlier, the deputy health minister, José Calderón, appealed to Peruvians to donate blood for the injured.

The quake struck at 6.40pm local time (12.40am BST), and was followed by four strong aftershocks. The US geological survey said the epicenter was 90 miles south-east of Lima.

The city of Ica, which has a population of 650,000 and is 165 miles south-east of Lima, was one of the worst hit areas. Mr Calderon described the situation there as "dramatic".

Seventeen people among the dead were killed when a church collapsed, and news reports said people were crowded into hospitals. State doctors called off a national strike, which began yesterday, to tackle the emergency.

The government rushed police, soldiers, doctors and aid to Ica, but a cameraman attempting to reach the city said traffic on the Pan American highway was paralyzed by giant cracks in the road and fallen power lines.

Residents of Chincha, a small town 90 miles south-east of Lima, reported that the walls of homes had fallen in, with numerous people having been hurt by falling bricks and broken glass.

An APTN cameraman who reached the town said he counted 30 bodies under bloody sheets on floor of the badly damaged hospital.

Homes in Lima collapsed and many people fled into the streets as the city shook for more than a minute.

"This is the strongest earthquake I've ever felt," Maria Pilar Mena, a 47-year-old sandwich seller, told the Associated Press. "When the quake struck, I thought it would never end."

The Peruvian president, Alan García ordered all police personnel on to the streets of Lima to maintain order.

He said he was sending the country's health minister and two other cabinet members to Ica, and warned residents of areas affected by the quake to be prepared to evacuate at short notice.

Police reported that large boulders had been shaken loose from hills and were blocking the country's central motorway, to the east of Lima.

Callers to Radioprogramas, Peru's main news radio station, said parts of several cities in the south of the country had been hit by blackouts, and the quake knocked out telephone service and mobile phones in the capital.

The last earthquake of this magnitude to strike Peru came in 2001, when 71 people were killed in and around the southern Andean city of Arequipa.

The country is situated in a zone of intense seismic activity, where the Nazca plate pushes against the South American continental plate below the Pacific.