Powerful Earthquake Strikes Peru’s Andes Region, Leaving 5 Dead and Hundreds Displaced

A devastating earthquake struck the Andes mountains in Peru overnight, claiming at least five lives and displacing hundreds as homes and a church were reduced to rubble. Authorities cautioned on Sunday that several individuals are still unaccounted for in the aftermath.

The tremor, registering a magnitude of 5.5, hit just after 9:20 p.m. on Saturday near Sicaya, central Peru, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake left over 20 individuals injured and forced more than 300 people to evacuate their homes, as noted by Peru’s National Civil Defense Institute.

Efforts continued into Sunday to locate missing people after multiple structures, including a church and a convent, crumbled or were deemed too hazardous to remain in.

Officials highlighted that the prevalent use of traditional adobe in construction may have intensified the destruction. Luis Vásquez, head of the local civil defense, remarked that these rustic building materials “amplified the magnitude of the damage.”

Images from the hard-hit farming community of Chongo Bajo showed families wrapped in blankets outside damaged homes as neighbors picked through the rubble. Animals could also be seen trapped beneath collapsed buildings.

“My home has been destroyed,” resident Hermenegilda Guamalato told local radio while looking for shelter with her three children in the neighboring province of Huayucachi.

Peru sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” one of the world’s most active earthquake zones. In 2007, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck the coastal province of Pisco, killing nearly 600 people.