Earthquake In Peru Kills 8 People, Injures At Least 5

A 5.1 magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Peru late Saturday, killing at least eight people and injuring five, when their homes collapsed, authorities said Sunday. The quake caused 45 adobe-and-stone houses to collapse, and more than 70 houses to develop cracks making them uninhabitable.

The earthquake struck Misca near Cuzco, following which the government in the region declared a 90-day state of emergency to help rebuild the village, which lies 370 miles southeast of the capital Lima, Associated Press, or AP, reported. Misca is home to about 160 people of the local Quechua tribe.

"The population has lost everything,” Peru’s President Ollanta Humala said, according to AP.

The National Civil Defense Institute of Peru, also known as Indeci, said in a statement Sunday: “The Center for National Emergency Operations continues with monitoring and emergency monitoring,” adding that efforts “would be coordinated with the authorities of area sending heavy machinery to enable the stretch of road Cochapampa – Paruro.”

Alfredo Castilla, a Misca resident, said, according to AP: “The only thing standing is the school, which was built with cement. Almost everything else is destroyed, including our only church."