An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale rocked northeast Peru on Sunday morning, the latest one of a series of tremors above magnitude 5 that have hit the South American country this month.

So far there has been no report of casualties or major property damages from the quake, whose epicenter was located off the coast.

The Geophysical Institute of Peru reported that the epicenter was some 46 kilometers southeast of Sechura, in the region of Piura, and 1,000 kilometers northeast of Lima.

In August 2007, Peru was stricken by a magnitude-7.9 earthquake that claimed 596 lives and destroyed some 70,000 houses.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2009)