Powerful earthquake hits Peruvian coastal city of Arequipa sparking tsunami warning
Arequipa.JPG
A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.0 struck just outside the coastal city of Arequipa, the second most populated part of Peru.
No deaths or injuries have yet been reported from Friday’s strike as authorities continue to search the area.
The Peruvian government said on social media it was monitoring "to assess the damage and determine the actions to be taken".
The US National Tsunami Warning Center had said there was a tsunami threat from the quake.
It said that waves of between one and three metres above the tide level had been recorded along some parts of Peru's coast.
Peru's prime minister Gustavo Adrianzen, however, said the tsunami warning in the coast of Arequipa had been discarded.
Carlos Zanabria, an adviser to the regional government of Arequipa, told local radio station RPP that material damage had been reported in some districts.
Residents, he said, had left their homes in fear, but he had heard no reports of death or injury.
Flavio Aranguren, the mayor of the Yauca district in the province of Caraveli, Arequipa, told RPP some walls of houses in the district have collapsed.
He also said no fatalities had been reported.
Ecuador and Peru are part of the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an extensive area that surrounds the Pacific Ocean where clashes between the continental plates are frequent.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
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