PERU: Police fire warning shots in Peruvian city of Ica as earthquake survivors grow desperate

Anger spills over on the streets of Ica, one of the cities worst affected by the Peru earthquake as complaints and frustration over aid effort mount. An angry group of residents from the Peruvian city of Ica clashed with police on Friday (August 17) as frustration grew over government relief efforts following Wednesday's earthquake. Locals tried to force a local supermarket, which has remained closed since the quake, to open its doors. They say they need food. Police used warning shots to disperse the crowd as frustration turned to anger. Desperation was in evidence in other towns most severely hit by the earthquake. One woman selling fish in Pisco spoke of the problems they were facing. "We are selling them below market price because I need the money to buy rice and oil, the children can no longer stand the hunger, there's nothing." Tent hospitals in Pisco continued to be inundated with survivors. Workers handed out water purification tablets to help prevent the spread of disease. While the discovery of bodies continued to rise, there was the occasional flicker of hope with the odd survivor being pulled from beneath tonnes of rubble. But the spectre of death was in evidence with new consignments of coffins headed to the earthquake zones. President Alan Garcia - who earlier on Friday defended the pace of the government relief effort - was on hand in Pisco to oversee the aid operation. Meanwhile, the burial of dozens of dead continued at local cemeteries. Across Pisco, workers helped desperate relatives search for missing loved ones. They scrambled through rubble with their bare hands. Several bodies were pulled from the debris in Pisco on Friday, including that of a family of five - killed when a wall in their home collapsed. Officials continued to play down criticism that the aid response so far had been inadequate. Ismael Benavides Ferreyros, the Peruvian Minister of Agriculture, said food, water and blankets were arriving. Also coffins. Armed Peruvian soldiers were deployed to prevent looters from taking aid supplies at the local airport. Residents pleaded for more assistance. One man said what was needed more than anything was water for the children. After that, we need tents, blankets. "We have neighbours that have nothing" he said, "they have lost everything". The quake, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, struck late on Wednesday and many of its victims were poor, killed when their flimsy mud-brick homes caved in. Hospitals and morgues were overwhelmed, forcing residents to lay bodies out on city streets.

ITN Source | August 18, 2007

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