AP, 25-MAY-99
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Hundreds of people slept in the streets of the Peruvian
capital Tuesday, fearing their houses might collapse after computer messages
warned of a massive earthquake.
People slept wrapped in blankets along with jugs of water and food in front
of their mud-brick homes in the poor Lima districts of Rimac, Barrios Altos,
Surquillo and La Victoria. The rumor began when an undetermined number of
computers received e-mail message saying that authorities in Japan expected
a magnitude 8 earthquake to strike Lima between 2 and 3 a.m. Tuesday.
Local radio then relayed the faulty information.
The director of Peru's Geophysical Institute, Ronald Woodman, said
scientists cannot predict earthquakes. In a radio address, he asked Lima's
residents to ignore the message.
"We have tried to find out where the message came from but so far we have
not succeeded," Woodman said.
Firefighters reported treating seven cases of hypertension attributed to the
rumor and news stations received hundreds of telephone calls asking about
the earthquake rumor.
In Peru's worst earthquake-related disaster, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in
1970 killed 70,000 people in the central highlands and coast.
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