01/08/09, 03:13:32 UTC

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Fear for tourists missing in quake zone

news.com.au

CONCERN mounted yesterday for foreign tourists unaccounted for in southern Peru following last week's massive earthquake which killed more than 500 people and devastated whole towns.

Embassies said they were worried about some of their citizens believed to be in the region, famous for its nature reserves and archaeological sites such as the Nazca Lines –mysterious primitive giant figures etched into the ground that date back more than 14 centuries.

"We have no news from several tourists. They haven't called their families," said an official at the Belgian embassy.

A consular official at the US embassy, Sam Wunder, said a team in Pisco, the worst-hit town, had verified the whereabouts of 290 Americans known to be in the region.

"They have all checked out, except for six cases that we are still chasing up. It's possible, though, that they may be dual nationals and that's why they haven't checked in," he told AFP.

Other missions, such as the French embassy, said there was no way of knowing how many of their nationals were in the zone hit by the quake.

So far, the official death toll of 540 accounts for Peruvians crushed in their adobe homes or in other buildings when the magnitude 8.0 quake (7.7 on the Richter scale) struck last Wednesday.

Up to 10 bodies still in Pisco hotel

Search teams continued efforts to recover victims from the rubble, with up to 10 bodies believed still among the ruins of the Embassy Hotel in Pisco. The two bottom floors of the building were squashed flat by the three upper storeys of the hotel, which was listed in many guide books.

"There is a strong stench coming from the building," said one rescue worker.

In many other streets, too, the odour of decomposing bodies was nauseating. With rotting corpses, piles of garbage and blocked sewers posing a threat to public health and a possible epidemic, authorities ordered residents to wear masks.

The quake, the most violent Peru has seen since 1974, virtually destroyed Pisco, population 130,000.

At least 335 of its residents died – 160 of them in the main church, which collapsed during a mass.

Across the affected region, around a thousand people were injured and nearly 180,000 have been left homeless.

 Printable Version  | published Aug 23, 2007