Authorities fight looting, disease in quake-hit Peru

Authorities fight looting, disease in quake-hit Peru

	Published : Sun, 19 Aug 2007 10:19 By : Agencies Print this Story

PISCO, Peru (Thomson Financial) - Health authorities in Peru on Sunday battled the spread of infectious diseases in the wake of a devastating earthquake as President Alan Garcia threatened a curfew to stop looting.

'I have ordered to use the harshest measures and if needed to impose a curfew,' Garcia told reporters in Pisco, the town hit hardest by Wednesday's quake, where he has been monitoring rescue efforts since Friday.

Amid increasing reports of looting and assaults, Garcia on Saturday ordered more troops to the quake-stricken area and promised that authorities would keep the peace 'whatever the cost.'

Garcia tried to play down reports of looting in Pisco and Chincha, saying they were nothing more than 'rumors,' but a RPP radio reporter in Chincha broke down in tears describing the prevailing lawlessness in the city which he said the earthquake had devastated and left at the mercy of marauding gangs of armed thugs.

A government statement out of Lima, meanwhile, said 1,000 military have been sent to assist 2,000 police in patrolling streets in Pisco, Chincha, Ica and Canete, with orders to 'deal firmly' with looting.

A Spanish team helping rescuers was shot at, sparking alarm but resulting in no injuries, a member of the squad said.

Also in this coastal city 240 kilometers (150 miles) southeast of Lima, Health Minister Carlos Vallejos said that some 1,500 doctors and nurses were struggling to prevent the spread of epidemic diseases among earthquake victims.

On the third day after Wednesday's massive 8.0 magnitude earthquake, the official toll remained at 500 and more than 1,600 injured.

But the number of missing is still unknown, and lacking official figures, news media estimate the number of people affected by the quake at 200,000.

Around two-thirds of Pisco was destroyed, leaving many of its 130,000 inhabitants homeless and an unknown number of dead still beneath the rubble of collapsed homes, shops and other buildings.

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