Scores injured in Peru quake

LIMA, Peru—A 6.3 magnitude quake buckled building and caused power outages in central Peru early Monday, but resulted in no immediate reports of deaths or life-threatening injuries, officials said.

Dozens of people were admitted to area hospitals after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook the coastal region of Peru shortly after midnight.

“There have been between 60 and 70 people admitted to area hospitals,” a local official in Ica, Alonso Navarro told Peruvian radio.

According to seismologists at the United States Geological Survey, the quake was centered off Peru’s Pacific coast some 15 kilometers (nine miles) southeast of the town of Ica.

The temblor at 00:11 a.m. (0511 GMT) had a depth of 39 kilometers (24 miles), according to the USGS. It rousted panicked residents out of their beds and badly damaged several homes in the region.

The injuries included broken bones, concussions and cuts caused by falling objects, officials said.

The 6.3 reading of the quake’s intensity was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.

Ica was hit in August, 2007, by a massive 8.0 magnitude quake that left more than 500 people dead.