Rescuers end search as Peru's quake toll edges to 540
PISCO (AFP) - Rescue teams in Peru's shattered earthquake zone headed home Monday, as search operations were replaced by stepped-up aid efforts and security patrols against looters.
Wednesday's powerful 8.0-magnitude temblor killed at least 503 people, and the final toll "could reach 540," Civil Defense officials said. Some 1,600 people were injured.
Most of the deaths occurred in the town of Pisco, 240 kilometers south of the capital Lima.
There, 308 people were confirmed killed -- 160 of them in the town's church, which collapsed during mass.
National police colonel Roger Torres told AFP a further 150 were believed still buried in rubble elsewhere in Pisco, an evaluation backed by the odor of decomposing bodies hanging heavy in many streets.
- Latest
- Trending
