As residents protest lack of aid Peruvian president sends troops into earthquake-ravaged region

In Ica, police fired on people emptying pharmacies and food stores to meet the needs of desperate earthquake victims. Government officials justified their actions by claiming that the earthquake had damaged a jail and allowed 600 prisoners to escape, whom they blamed for the looting. In Pisco there were reports of police standing by, and even helping, while hungry earthquake victims took food and other items from stores and delivery trucks.

Residents are complaining of a lack of services and food and there are complaints of price gouging from some stores in the region. Pisco and Ica are in dire need of 30,000 tents to provide refuge for the victims. Many of those whose homes were left relatively unscathed are now sleeping outdoors, fearing another aftershock to the earthquake that struck on August 15.