Rescuers are still pulling bodies from ruined buildings in the rural town of Pisco and nearby villages, 200km south-west of the capital, Lima. Hospitals and morgues were overwhelmed by the disaster, forcing residents to place dead bodies on the streets.
President Alan Garcia declared that all public buildings would be closed for three days - including schools, military bases and museums. He had earlier announced a state of emergency and sent cabinet ministers to the area.
Power and communications were down and up to 80 percent of houses in some areas had been destroyed because of poor construction.
Margareta Wahlstrom, UN deputy emergency relief co-ordinator, said that the death toll was likely to rise as the destruction of buildings in the area was "quite total". She said almost US$1 million had already been pledged by several UN agencies to help the victims.
The 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck on Wednesday evening at 1841 (2341 GMT), just off the coast of Peru.
In 1970, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake high in the Peruvian Andes triggered a landslide that buried the town of Yungay and killed 66,000 people.
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