MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru rehearses its response to a magnitude 8.8 quake off Lima and Callao

Peru held the year's second national multi-hazard drill on Friday, an exercise testing evacuation protocols and the response capacity of the public and the authorities to a possible magnitude 8.8 earthquake centered off the central coast of Lima and Callao.

At 3pm local time (20:00 GMT), sirens, horns and whistles sounded in public and private buildings, alongside alerts issued by the Peruvian Seismic Alert System and messages sent to mobile phones through SISMATE. Thousands of people left homes, workplaces and schools for safe areas. President Keiko Fujimori led the protocol evacuation in Lima's Plaza de Armas, accompanied by Prime Minister Luis Galarreta, the capital's mayor, Renzo Reggiardo, and the head of the National Civil Defense Institute, Luis Enrique Vásquez Guerrero.

The exercise ran in three stages: activation of alerts and movement to internal safe zones, evacuation along established routes to outdoor areas, and remaining under the guidance of emergency volunteers until the drill closed. Scenarios varied by region. On the coast, an earthquake followed by a tsunami was recreated; in the highlands, landslides and mudflows; and in the jungle, heavy rainfall and river flooding, as explained by the president of Peru's Geophysical Institute, Hernando Tavera.

In the assessment of simulated damage, Reggiardo said an earthquake above magnitude 8 in the capital would leave 8,181 dead and 139,434 injured. In the coastal district of La Punta, in Callao, one of the areas most exposed to a tsunami-generating event, residents rehearsed moving to vertical safe zones after the alert.

The date was chosen to mark 19 years since the magnitude 7.9 earthquake of August 15, 2007, which struck the southern region of Ica and was followed by a tsunami at the port of Pisco. It was the most destructive quake recorded in the country in recent decades, with around five hundred dead according to figures released by the authorities, and extensive material losses.

Peruvian territory sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where around 80% of the world's seismic activity is concentrated. In July, the Andean region of Junín recorded several earthquakes that killed five people and destroyed homes.

The National Civil Defense Institute recalled the importance of every household keeping an emergency backpack with non-perishable food, a first aid kit, warm clothing, hygiene items, cash and specific supplies for infants or older adults.

The exercise took place four days after the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck western Colombia, leaving more than 265 dead.