MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tremor leaves at least one deat in Lima, Peru

Bouarte asked the population to remain calm and insisted there was no tsunami threat

At least one person was killed and various others were wounded Sunday when a 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit Lima and its surrounding areas in Peru at around 11.35 am local time (16:35 GMT). The victim was a 36-year-old motorcycle cab driver who was crushed by a collapsing wall. The tremor's epicenter was located 30 kilometers southwest of Callao at a depth of 49 kilometers.

In addition, five other people were injured and taken to nearby hospitals following landslides along coastal cliffs, and power outages occurred in districts like Villa El Salvador, Ventanilla, Ancon, and Pachacamac. The earthquake briefly halted a soccer match between Sporting Cristal and Deportivo Garcilaso.

President Dina Boluarte, speaking from the National Emergency Operations Center (COEN), urged calm, noting no tsunami threat and emphasizing Peru’s location in the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, where 85% of global earthquakes occur. “I ask the population to be calm,” Boluarte said. “In these moments of earthquakes, the first thing that has to prevail is calm, to place ourselves safely under the thresholds of the door, far from the glass places because they can burst,” she added.

Protocols were activated across Lima's 43 districts to assess damage. Peru experiences around 100 noticeable earthquakes annually, with significant past events including a 7.5 magnitude quake in Amazonas in 2021 (12 injured, 70+ homes destroyed) and a devastating 1970 earthquake in Áncash that killed 67,000.

Peru, with 34 million inhabitants, is located in the so-called Pacific Belt of Fire, which stretches along the west coast of the Americas and East Asia. These regions are home to the greatest seismic activity in the world. In Peru alone, there are at least a hundred earthquakes noticeable to the population each year.

“Due to the 6.1 magnitude earthquake, 1 person is reported dead, at the moment, in the Independencia district. Also, five people injured, who are being treated in different hospitals in the capital,” the COEN said on X.