Rescuers searched intensely through the night into morning Friday, combing rubble for any survivors after a powerful earthquake devastated cities and sent a church's soaring ceiling tumbling down on hundreds of worshippers in southern Peru.

Officials said the death toll across the region hit by the magnitude-8 temblor topped 500.

In the gritty port city of Pisco, searchers at San Clemente church pulled at least 60 bodies out of the ruins and lined them up on the plaza. Doctors struggled to help more than 1,500 injured, including hundreds who waited on cots in the open air, fearing more aftershocks would send buildings crashing down.

Peru's fire department said the death toll from the magnitude-8 quake that devastated the southern coast had risen to 510, and rescuers were still digging through ruins of collapsed adobe homes in cities and hamlets.

Destruction from Wednesday's quake was centered in Peru's southern desert, near the oasis city of Ica and nearby Pisco, about 125 miles southeast of the capital of Lima.

 Source : Associated Press News