Peru has been hit by a huge earthquake this morning, which was also felt in other nearby countries.
The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) confirmed the huge tremor, which was a magnitude 6.1, struck the centre of the south American country. The earthquake was at a depth of 10km, close to the surface. It is currently unknown if any people were hurt or buildings damaged in the ongoing incident, with emergency crews standing by. Last year the nation was hit by a magnitude 7.2 quake off its coastline which caused a number of aftershocks over the next two weeks which sparked a tsunami warning.
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Eight people were hurt in the previous earthquake, sparking fears of more casualties this time around. The incident comes 24 hours after residents in the Yorkshire Dales were shaken awake by an earthquake overnight which sounded like an “explosion”.
One local told how she was “scared half to death by the 2.5-magnitude quake, which was recorded just after 1.30am near Litton in North Yorkshire. The tremor, which had a depth of 2.5 miles, according to the British Geological Survey (BGS) was felt an hour away from the village, according to locals.
One woman told how she was awake with a migraine, 40 minutes away from Litton. She said she heard a “strange deep rumble” early Friday morning and another said they thought it was military planes.
Another wrote she lives half an hour away from Litton and felt it: “Scared me half to death up in Starbotton. I’d convinced myself it was a bad dream before hearing others heard it too. My whole house shook and the noise! Thought a car had come off road and hit the barn.”
Others blamed the ‘Craven Fault’ line for the quake, which is a series of geological fault lines which run along the edges of the Yorkshire Dales. In December 1944 residents of the Dales were roused by a ‘sleeping monster’.
It was a significant earthquake near Skipton, North Yorkshire that caused rattling windows, dislodging chimneys and sliding furniture. It had a magnitude of 3.1 and 4.8 on the Richter scale. Because it happened during World War II some locals initially feared it was a German bomb.