Overview
- A shallow earthquake measured about 5.5–5.6 struck near Sicaya and Chupaca late Saturday at 9:24 p.m., according to seismological agencies and local reports.
- Authorities have confirmed at least five deaths, more than 20 injuries, and about 300 people displaced as emergency crews continue search-and-rescue operations.
- The tremor toppled or badly damaged adobe and stone buildings including a church and a convent, leaving homes reduced to rubble and people and livestock trapped under debris.
- Police, firefighters, medical teams and Peru’s National Civil Defense Institute deployed to the Mantaro Valley are conducting damage assessments while aftershocks and cold night temperatures complicate relief.
- Peru sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, and experts say shallow quakes can be especially destructive in rural Andean areas because older masonry and adobe construction often collapses, raising the risk that official tolls and displacement figures will be revised.