Aftershock shakes Peru disaster zone

A powerful aftershock measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale has hit the region in Peru where an earthquake killed 510 people.

Rescue teams are still hunting for survivors of the main quake of 8.0 magnitude that hit on Wednesday.

Many of its victims were poor, killed when their flimsy mud-brick homes collapsed.

Hospitals and morgues are overwhelmed and residents have been forced to lay bodies out on city streets.

A witness said there were no immediate reports of damages or injuries from the aftershock, centred around 90 miles south of the capital Lima.

Some 510 people have been confirmed dead and 1,000 wounded since the big quake.

Thousands of people left homeless have been forced to sleep outside. Residents have complained of a lack of medical attention and emergency supplies.

The quake also cut electricity and phone lines and cracked major highways.

The damage was worst in the cities of Canete, Chincha and Pisco, although other areas like Nazca and Palpa are inaccessible.

The rescue of a man from the rubble of a collapsed church brought some hope to search teams in the town of Pisco.

"This is virtually a miracle, hopefully we can find more," said Carlos Cordova Gomez, chief of Peru's voluntary firefighters.

"For the time being we're going to keep on looking for bodies," said Felipe Aguilar, directing Army rescue efforts in the town.

"For us, this is the priority right now, because we've already pulled one person out alive."

Three days of mourning have been declared by President Alan Garcia who visited the quake-hit areas on Thursday and sent condolences to the families of the victims.

Wednesday's quake was one of the worst natural disasters to hit the South American country during the last century. In 1970, an earthquake killed an estimated 50,000 Peruvians in catastrophic avalanches of ice and mud that buried the town of Yungay.

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