Lima: A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 struck off the coast of central Peru on Wednesday evening, and series of aftershocks rocked the country in the hours that followed.
The death toll from the quake grew quickly overnight with at least 337 dead and more than 1,350 injured, Peru's Health Ministry reported.
President Alan Garcia said the worst destruction appeared to be in Canete, Chincha and Ica.
"We have declared a state of emergency in the Ica Department and we are going to ensure that regional and local governments, civil defense institutions and ministries can spend what they need to, rapidly and immediately, in order to solve the problems that exist there," said Garcia.
The government closed schools in the aftermath, Labor Minister Susana Pinilla Cisneros said, adding that the Labor Ministry building in Lima was damaged in the quake along with other public buildings.
The quake was felt for two minutes, according to Peruvian media. Broken windows were reported in Lima, and mobile phone services were interrupted.
Residents of inland towns felt the temblor strongly, and it was also felt in cities near the coast and the mountains.
The coastal town of Pisco, about 160 miles south of Lima, appears to be the hardest-hit, and electricity was out in the town, Gen. Luis Palomino, head of the Peru's national civil defense institute, told CNN. He said he could not confirm any deaths.
The quake was centered 25 miles west-northwest of Chincha, according to the US Geological Survey. The epicenter was 25 miles below the Earth's surface.
The major quake prompted a tsunami warning, issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, for Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia, and a tsunami watch for Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and Honduras.
Those warnings were later canceled, along with a tsunami advisory issued for Hawaii, the center said.
A tsunami was generated by the quake, but it was not large enough to be damaging to the Central or South American coast, Gerard Fryer with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center told CNN.
Peru, and most of the South American Pacific coast, are located on the border of two tectonic plates, the South American plate, which sits beneath the entire continent and extends across the Atlantic about halfway to Africa, and the Nazca plate, which extends across the Pacific along most of the coast.
In October 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake centered in Pakistan killed nearly 75,000 people in Pakistan and India. That quake's epicenter was only 6 miles below the Earth's surface.
Earthquakes centered closer to the Earth's surface produce stronger shaking and generally can cause more damage than those further underground.
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