In this photo released by the government news agency Agencia Andina, residents camp in a park to spend the night after an earthquake hit the area in Lima on Wednesday. A powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook Peru's coast near the capital on Wednesday, toppling buildings, setting off landslides and killing at least 17 people when a church collapsed in a southern city. - AP

CHINCHA, Peru, (Reuters):

Powerful aftershocks shook Peru yesterday as rescuers pulled wounded and dead from collapsed homes and churches a day after a massive earthquake killed hundreds of people.

Hospitals were overwhelmed with injured in the cities of Chincha and Pisco on the Pacific coast, and dead bodies were gathered on street corners in Pisco.

Peru's civil defence agency said at least 337 people perished and 1,300 were injured in the 7.9-magnitude quake and the death toll was expected to rise.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported aftershocks of magnitude 6.0 and 6.3 yesterday morning near the central Peru coast.

Wounded people

Wounded people lay on the floor in the San José hospital in Chincha, south of the capital Lima. Television images showed walls in the hospital destroyed by the quake.

"A wall fell on her. There are no beds and they can't give her a bed until they can X-ray her, but there's no power," Hernando Rodriguez told a television reporter as he sat with his daughter in the hospital, hoping she could be moved to Lima.

In the San Juan de Dios hospital in Pisco, doctor Ricardo Cabrera said staff was struggling to cope with 200 wounded and more than 40 dead, with no power and a large part of the hospital damaged.

He said there was no morgue in the city and bodies were being gathered in the main square and on street corners.

"There are a lot of bodies still in the rubble," Cabrera told RPP radio, calling for blood, bandages and medicines.

DEATH TOLL COULD RISE

Many people were forced to sleep outside in cities devastated by the huge tremor, which cracked highways and cut power and telephone lines.

"The first impression of the team is that damage is severe, especially to houses," said Giorgio Ferrario, the South America representative for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

"We know for the moment, according to local authorities, that at least 350 people are dead, but the toll will certainly rise assearch and rescue operations continue," he said.

A fire department official said at least four people were trapped when the main tower of the Senor de Luren church in the city of Ica, home to some 120,000 people, was toppled.