By DPA
Lima : Two days after a massive earthquake in central Peru, widespread looting prompted President Alan Garcia to start deploying navy and army troops to keep order in Ica, the area most affected by the powerful quake.
In one case, a local mayor was trying to transport material to affected quake areas when robbers attacked him. In other cases, truck drivers fired guns in retaliation.
Civil Defence authorities said the official death toll from the country’s worst quake in 37 years had increased to 446 and put the official number of injured as high as 1,008.
On Friday, a 5.5-magnitude aftershock tremor again caused panic in Lima and the Ica region. No further damage had been reported. There have been nearly 400 aftershocks since Wednesday’s 8.0 magnitude quake.
Over 85,000 Peruvians were left homeless in Ica and Lima. Rescue teams were still searching for survivors under the rubble, while the worst hit cities were still without water and electricity supplies Friday.
Peru has received $40 million in international aid to help with relief efforts, the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI) said Friday.
Large groups of people who say they lost property in the tragedy and still have not received help are raiding trucks and buses trying to get to the area, and throw stones at them after trying to grab items off the vehicles, witnesses said.
In the face of the problem, Garcia – who has been staying in Pisco since Thursday to lead relief efforts – said he would deploy troops to “impose respect”.
“I do not want to take extreme measures, or declare a curfew,” Garcia said.
However, the president – who admitted that the death toll “can possibly surpass 500” – warned that he will not allow the situation to get out of control.
In the centre of Pisco, the port city most affected by the quake, a crowd raided a pharmacy and took whatever they could find while Peruvian television cameras recorded the scenes.
Residents said similar incidents were seen in several areas of the city. In regional capital Ica, attackers took household electrical appliances among other things from a mall.
The most violent incident took place outside Ica, where some 300 people tried to raid trucks. Some of the truck drivers opened fire in retaliation.
Freddy Ternero, mayor of the San Martin de Porres district in Lima, attempted to take aid to the affected areas on behalf of his constituency. But he was a victim of the attack outside Ica.
“I hope the government manages to distribute aid soon because people are getting desperate,” said Ternero.
Aristides Mussio, head of operations of Peru’s Civil Defence, said as many as 16,879 buildings had collapsed in the temblor.
“The situation in Pisco is a catastrophe,” Norbert Haase, the German Red Cross chief in Peru, told DPA. “People are traumatized by the earthquake, by these great losses of relatives.”
The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) Friday launched an appeal for 1.6 million francs ($1.3 million) to help relief operations in Peru. The money would allow the Peruvian Red Cross to provide assistance to 20,000 people affected by the quake, the Geneva-based IFRC said.
The US is sending doctors to help victims of Peru’s earthquake and giving $150,000 in emergency aid, the US State Department said Friday.
A US medical team that was on a training mission in the region when the quake struck has split into three teams and is working with Peruvian authorities, department spokesman Sean McCormack said.