A moderate earthquake has occurred near the city of Piura in northern Peru but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The magnitude 5.8 quake struck at 1235 local time (1735 GMT), 85km (55 miles) to the south-west of the city of about 400,000 people.

The US Geological Survey estimated its depth to be 15.6km (9.7 miles).

An earthquake on the coast south of the capital Lima in August 2007 killed hundreds of people.

One of the country's deadliest disasters occurred in 1970 when a 7.9 magnitude earthquake high in the Peruvian Andes triggered a landslide which buried the town of Yungay and killed 66,000 people.