500 dead in Peru quake as aid airlift goes into action

PISCO, Peru (AFP) - Peru on Thursday scrambled to cope with a massive quake that killed at least 500 people, as more than 300 aftershocks worried survivors and rescuers trying to unearth people trapped in the rubble.

"The toll has jumped to between 500 and 510 dead and 1,600 injured," the head of the country's firefighter service, Roberto Ocno, told AFP by telephone from Peru's southern coastal area struck late Wednesday by a massive tremor.

"There are dead trapped under houses," he said. "There are several bodies in the streets, people who may have died from heart attacks."
The US Geological Survey on Thursday upgraded the quake to a rare 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale, as the Peruvian government said helicopters and planes were airlifting emergency aid to the hard-hit coastal towns.

President Alan Garcia declared three days of national mourning for the earthquake victims, closing all public buildings including schools, military bases and museums.
Buildings collapsed, major highways to the coast were torn asunder and power lines knocked out by the quake, leaving overwhelmed local officials issuing urgent appeals for help.

"We have hundreds of dead lying in the streets, and injured people in the hospital. It is totally indescribable," said Juan Mendoza, the mayor of Pisco, which appeared to have suffered the worst damage from the quake.

"Seventy percent of the town is devastated," Mendoza said. "We don't have water, no communications, the houses are collapsed, the churches are destroyed," he said, adding his town of 130,000 urgently needed medical help.

Many dead were still believed to be lying under the rubble of the church of San Clemente which collapsed during a funeral mass packed with mourners.

An AFP reporter saw dozens of corpses on a Pisco sidewalk covered with blankets, as shocked survivors numbly surveyed the chaos that was wrought in just a matter of minutes.

Elsewhere in Peru, the quake claimed two lives in Lima from heart attacks as tens of thousands spent the night on the streets fearing more tremors.