Peru sends soldiers to quell looting in quake-devastated region as government urges patience

PISCO, Peru — Soldiers headed to stretches of highway plagued by looting near this southern fishing city, trying to restore order in an area devastated first by a magnitude-8 earthquake and now beset by what the government on Saturday called "highway robbers."

"The state has two obligations: assist, help, and maintain order," President Alan Garcia said in Pisco, urging patience for survivors of Wednesday's quake.

The delivery of goods "must be gradual," Garcia said a day earlier, adding he ordered 200 navy officials to the area to maintain order.

Television images Friday showed hungry survivors leaving pharmacies and markets with bags full of food and other items. Some people ransacked a public market, while mobs looted a refrigerated trailer and blocked aid trucks.

Speaking Saturday at a military air base outside Pisco, Foreign Commerce Minister Mercedes Araoz said robbing and looting continued to be a problem, adding, "We're trying to do something about the highway robbers...The army is heading to the area now to control it."

Few buildings still stood in the fishing city of Pisco in the wake of a quake that struck Wednesday afternoon, killing at least 510 people. Many of the structures not reduced to rubble were rickety deathtraps waiting to fall.

Garcia predicted "a situation approaching normality" in 10 days, but acknowledged that reconstruction would take far longer. He said authorities were considering nighttime curfews to maintain order on the streets, which still lack electricity.

Hopes of finding more survivors diminished. At least 1,500 people were injured, and Garcia said at least 80,000 people had suffered the quake's impact through the loss of loved ones or destroyed or damaged homes.

Rescuers continued to pull bodies from the rubble of the downtown San Clemente church in Pisco, where hundreds had gathered on Wednesday for Mass. The church's domed ceiling broke apart in shaking that lasted an agonizing two minutes.

Paul Wooster, coordinator of the Rapid UK Rescue team from Gloucester, England, said rescuers were using sound detectors and infrared cameras to search mountains of rubble. The last survivor, a man, was discovered at midday Friday.

"We always work on a four-day window and I'm talking realistically. So we are still looking for survivors but there's not much more time," he said.