8 magnitude earthquake hits northern Peru: USGS

The U.S. Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude as high as 8.0 stuck northern Peru in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The quake was felt around the country and even hundreds of miles away in the capital city of Lima, local authorities reported, at an “intermediate depth” of about 110 kilometres.

No initial reports of injuries or significant damage were reported. Typically, intermediate depth quakes cause less damage to the surface than shallower quakes. Peru sits on the so-called “Ring of Fire” in the Pacific, where most of the seismic activity in the world takes place.

“There are no reports of casualties nor of major material damage at this point,” Hernán Talavera, head of the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP), told local radio station RPP.

The earthquake was around 75km SSE of Lagunas and 180 km east of the town of Moyobamba the USGS said.

There were local reports of electric power cuts in the cities of Iquitos and Tarapoto, Amazonian towns in the Loreto region of the country. Pictures and videos online also showed some cracked and damaged walls.