A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake shook the border area along southern Peru and northern Chile early Monday, prompting people to flee their homes but reportedly causing no casualties. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 10:00 GMT on the Chilean side of the border, 106 kilometers northeast of the port city of Arica and 66 kilometers east-northeast of Tacna, Peru. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 98 kilometers. The USGS earlier had reported two earthquakes of 5.9 magnitude, but later updated its website to show only one. In Lima, a spokesman for the national civil defense agency said there were no immediate reports of damage, though an official at Peru's Geophysics Institute said electricity was disrupted in the southern Peruvian region near the Chile border. Dozens of people hurried in to the streets in Tacna, Peru, according to early reports from local authorities, and the earthquake caused power outages to thousands of people in Arica, Chile, where residents initially feared a tsunami but later returned to their homes. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage in Chile, said a spokeswoman for the country's state emergency office. A spokeswoman for Chile's Collahuasi, the world's third-biggest copper mine jointly owned by Anglo American and Xstrata, said its operations had not been affected by the earthquake.
