CHINCHA, Peru: Rescuers struggled across a shattered countryside yesterday to reach victims of a powerful earthquake that killed at least 355 people and injured 827. The Red Cross said the death toll was likely to rise.

The government rushed police, soldiers, doctors and aid to Ica, a city of 120,000 believed to be near the center of damage, but traffic to the area was paralyzed by giant cracks and fallen powerlines on the Pan American Highway south of Lima.

In Pisco, about 140 km southeast of Lima, "the dead are scattered by the dozens on the streets", and at least 200 people were buried under the rubble of a collapsed church, said Juan Mendoza, mayor of Pisco, in an interview with Lima radio station CPN.

"We don't have lights, water, communications. Most houses have fallen, churches, stores, hotels, everything is destroyed," Mendoza said, sobbing.

Civil Defense Commander Aristides Mussio, appearing on state television, declared the initial death toll of 337, saying one was killed in Lima and 336 in the region of Ica.

But Giorgio Ferrario, Peru chief for the International Federation of the Red Cross, told CNN he believed "that the death toll will rise again now that the night is over ... so that the rescue teams will be able to work more properly."

Communications with the region were complicated by telephone outages and electricity blackouts.

Local news media reported that people were crowding quake-damaged hospitals in Ica.

The US Geological Survey said Wednesday's magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit at 6:40 pm (7:40 am, Beijing time yesterday) about 145 km southeast of Lima at a depth of about 40 km. At least four strong aftershocks ranging from magnitudes of 5.4 to 5.9 were felt afterward.

Some homes collapsed in the center of Lima, where thousands fled into the streets for safety. The quake held the capital in its grip and shook it furiously for more than two minutes, longer than any time in recent memory in the quake-prone Andean region.

"This is the strongest earthquake I've ever felt," said Maria Pilar Mena, 47, a sandwich vendor in Lima. "When the quake struck, I thought it would never end."

Antony Falconi, 27, desperately tried to find a way home in the crowded streets, flagging down buses in the dark.

"Who isn't going to be frightened?" Falconi said. "The earth moved differently this time. It made waves and the earth was like jelly."

Agencies

(China Daily 08/17/2007 page1)