By Marco Aquino
LIMA July 19 (Reuters) – At least five people were killed and 21 injured after two earthquakes struck a mountainous region of Peru, the country’s civil defense chief said on Sunday.
The quakes, measuring magnitudes 5.1 and 3.7, hit on Saturday night in Chupaca province in the Junín region, about 300 km (186 miles) east of Lima, according to Peru’s National Seismological Center in a post on X.
The first quake struck at a depth of 24 km (15 miles) and the second at 18 km, the center said.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre earlier reported that the first earthquake had a magnitude of 5.6.
“So far, we have confirmed five deaths and 21 injuries,” Luis Vásquez, head of Peru’s National Civil Defense Institute, told local radio station Exitosa.
Vásquez added that preliminary reports showed about 48 homes had been destroyed and another 18 damaged, affecting around 300 people who are being provided with tents.
Homes in the affected communities in Chupaca are generally rudimentary structures built from adobe blocks.
Vásquez said emergency crews and firefighters arrived in the affected areas early Sunday to clear debris amid concerns that additional victims could be trapped.
Peru lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone that 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)
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