Moderate 5.4 quake rattles Peru’s coast

 

A 5.4-magnitude earthquake rattled Peru’s coast near the capital early Saturday, causing alarm but no major damages or fatalities, officials said.

 

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck in the Pacific Ocean at 7:51am local time, 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Peru’s coastal capital, Lima, shaking startled Peruvians out of bed.

 

“You tend to sleep late on Saturdays. We all went running out of the house into the street,” said Mirta Guzman, a 52-year-old mother of six in the Barranco district of Lima. She said her house is more than 100 years old and made of delicate adobe.

 

Phone lines in the capital were jammed for at least an hour after the quake.

 

Some residents in the Andean city of Cuzco, 355 miles (570 kilometers) southeast of Lima, told Radioprogramas radio that they felt the temblor.

 

The quake came about six hours after a magnitude-4.4 quake struck 40 miles (75 kilometers) north of Lima.

 

On August 15, a deadly magnitude-8 earthquake struck near Peru’s south-central coast, killing more than 500 people and destroying some 40,000 homes.

 

Peru sits on the seismically active Pacific Rim and earthquakes are frequent here.

 

On Monday, a 6.1 earthquake struck northern Chile briefly knocking out electricity to the port city of Iquique. (AP)