Aftershock hits quake-ravaged Peruvian town

PISCO, Peru (AFP) - A 4.7 magnitude aftershock rattled people queuing up to leave this town by air and by bus Monday, as rescuers gave way to bulldozers removing mountains of rubble from last week's devastating earthquake.

President Alan Garcia announced the start of fumigation operations across the town to head off diseases before they turn into possible epidemics.

More than 1,000 police and soldiers have also been deployed to halt the looting that has sown fear among the battered population.

According to the latest count by the Civil Defense service, 540 people died across the whole quake-hit region of southern Peru, 1,039 were injured, and more than 176,000 people were left homeless.

A total of 35,000 homes were destroyed in the magnitude 8.0 temblor (7.7 on the Richter scale) that rumbled across southern Peru on Wednesday, most of them in Pisco, which was 70 percent destroyed.

Many survivors, weak and shivering fro nights spent out in the open, were queuing up for hours at the local air force base for flights taking them away from Pisco.
Other lines formed at town bus stops, where people paid up to 40 dollars for a ride to Lima or any other city unharmed by the quake.

Five days after the catastrophe, rescue operations were wound up to the frustration of some rescue workers who believed there could still be more survivors.
Firefighter Javier Vallero, who has the unenviable record of having found the most corpses beneath the rubble, talked emotionally of walking "hand in hand with death."

"You feel so powerless when you don't get there in time. I have found lots of bodies, I don't know how many because I find it too hard to count them.
"I've found people cut in two by a wall which has fallen on them," said the 25-year-old Peruvian.

The town's San Clemente church has been the focus for the grieving. The roof had collapsed in the quake, killing 160 people -- nearly half of the town's 335 identified dead.