From WN

Peruvian officials said more than 30 people were injured after a powerful earthquake rattled Peru on Sunday, killing at least two people, according to The AFP.

The 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Peru’s Amazon basin region and neighboring Ecuador, but the tremors from the quake were felt over a wide area.

Reports were coming in on Monday from more remote areas of the jungle which were hit by the quake, which reached all the way to the capital Lima and other cities as frightened residents fled their buildings during the event.

“It was a really long quake,” said Maria Brito, who lives on the fifth floor of an apartment building in the capital, to The Associated Press. “It could’ve been worse, and luckily it’s over.”

“We have two dead because of the earthquake. The second victim is a 15-year-old who was hit on the head” by falling rubble at his home, Civil Defense Coordinator Ricardo Seijas told Chanel N television.

News reports said the young teenager died of his injuries after he was taken to a hospital in La Libertad.

The second victim was a 48-year-old man who was killed by falling debris while sleeping in his house in Cajamarca in northern Peru while the earthquake struck at 2:41 a.m. local time.

Seijas said at least 15 people were injured during the quake, with several hundred buildings destroyed or damaged in the natural disaster.

Peru’s President Martin Vizcarra surveyed the damage and said it was the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in 12 years since debris was blocking major roads, had damaged a bridge, and knocked down dozens of houses.

“It’s a quake that was felt throughout the Peruvian jungle,” Vizcarra said, who was originally scheduled to host a regional summit on Sunday with leaders from Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador.

Reports from Ecuador said more than a dozen people were injured and areas of the Amazon basin were left without power due to damage from the quake.

Portions of Colombia and Venezuela after reported feeling tremors from the quake.

Peru rests on the Ring of Fire, an arc of fault lines which follows the Pacific Basin and is prone to frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, so the Latin American country records nearly 200 earthquakes a year.

But Sunday’s quake, which was centered in a nature preserve 57 miles (92 kilometers) east of the small town of Yurimaguas, was different.

The United States Geological Survey said thankfully the quake occurred at nearly 70 miles (114 kilometers) below the surface, which helped minimize the damage.

–WN.com, Maureen Foody

For more on this story and video go to: https://article.wn.com/view/2019/05/27/At_Least_Two_Dead_From_Major_Earthquake_In_Peru/