LIMA (Reuters) - A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck a remote Amazon region of Peru on Wednesday, shaking office buildings far away in the capital and in neighboring Brazil although no injuries or damage were reported immediately.
The quake's epicenter was near the town of Pucallpa, which lies some 600 km (370 miles) from Lima in a sparsely populated central-eastern region close to the Brazilian border, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.
Telephone lines were down in the area, but local media said no serious damage or injuries had yet come to light. A 5.3-magnitude aftershock was registered in the area soon after the powerful initial tremor.
"There haven't been reports of collapsed homes. There have been problems with telephone communication," Guillermo Alvizuri, director of operations at the National Institute of Civilian Defense, told local radio.
One seismologist said the depth of the quake -- 145 km (90 miles) -- meant serious damage was less likely.
Earthquake-prone Peru is a leading metals exporter, but the region near the epicenter is not a mining area.
Leading Peruvian miner Southern Copper, which is controlled by Grupo Mexico, said its operations in southern parts of the Andean nation had not been affected.
Foreign energy companies including Spain's Repsol and Brazil's Petrobras operate in the earthquake-hit region, which produces some oil. Pucallpa is also the terminus for an oil pipeline from the Ganso Azul fields.
A spokesperson for the fire department in Cruzeiro do Sul, one of the Brazilian cities closest to the epicenter, said there had been no emergency calls yet and the quake seemed unlikely to have caused major damage there.
Nelson Liano, a journalist, was in a supermarket in the Brazilian city, where he said some goods fell off the shelves. "It was that sensation when you're on a boat and it rocks," he told Reuters.
In the coastal Peruvian capital of Lima, the temblor shook some office buildings and some mobile phone services were interrupted.
Local radio bulletins said the quake caused alarm across central Peru, sending panicked students and workers rushing out of classrooms and offices.
(Additional reporting by Bruno Marfinati, Raymond Colitt and Alexandre Caverni in Brazil; Writing by Helen Popper, Editing by Sandra Maler.)
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