At least six dead and 21 injured after 2 earthquakes in Peru

By Marco Aquino

LIMA July 19 (Reuters) – At least six people were killed and 21 injured after two earthquakes struck a mountainous region of Peru, the country’s civil defense chief said on Sunday.

According to Peru’s National Center for Seismology post on

The center said the first earthquake occurred at a depth of 24 km (15 miles) and the second at a depth of 18 km.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center had previously reported that the magnitude of the first earthquake was 5.6.

Luis Vásquez, head of Peru’s National Civil Defense Institute, told local radio station Exitosa that preliminary reports showed that about 48 houses were destroyed and another 18 damaged, affecting about 300 people who were provided with tents.

Houses in the affected communities in Chupaca are generally primitive structures built from mud blocks.

Vásquez said emergency crews and firefighters arrived in the affected areas early Sunday to clear debris out of concerns that additional victims could be trapped.

Peru lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, which accounts for roughly 85% of the world’s seismic activity.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Additional reporting by Sumedha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Tomasz Janowski)