A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the southern coast of Peru early Friday morning, said the National Emergency Operations Center (COEN) of the Andean country, and according to the first official reports there are no fatalities, but there are some minor injuries.
The strong earthquake had its epicenter off the coast of the town of Yauca, in the region of Arequipa —the second most populated in the country— about 580 kilometers south of Lima, with a depth of 42 kilometers, COEN reported.
“We are making the first assessments and thank God we have not registered any fatalities at this time,” said Peruvian Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzén to local radio RPP, although he added that there was “damage to some buildings.”
The United States National Tsunami Warning Center and the Peruvian Navy declared that the movement represented a tsunami warning, based on the first data available after the earthquake occurred.
Adrianzén later said that The Navy’s tsunami warning was dismissed, “although there could be some abnormal waves.”
The head of the Health Ministry’s disaster risk management department, David Aponte, said three minor injuries had been reported.
After the earthquake, at least four aftershocks with magnitudes between 4.0 and 4.6 were recorded in the Arequipa region, according to the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP).
Carlos Zanabria, an adviser to the Arequipa regional government, said residents had fled their homes in fear and some material damage was reported in some districts.
The mayor of the Yauca district, Flavio Aranguren, said that in his community “some walls of some houses have fallen, although so far there have been no deaths.”
Small artisanal gold mines operate in the town of Yauca and other neighboring towns near the coast, but there was no information available until now about any impact.
Ricardo Guillén, representative of the COEN, stated for his part that Electricity and telephone line outages have been recorded in areas near the epicenter of the earthquake.
