A British couple described last night how they crawled around their shaking hotel room seeking safety as an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale claimed hundreds of lives in central Peru.

Stephen and Clare Robinson, both PE teachers from Towcester in Northamptonshire, had just arrived at a hotel about a mile outside the city of Ica in the worst-affected area when the earthquake struck on Wednesday evening.

“It was a really shocking experience. Terrifying,” Mr Robinson told The Times by telephone. “When it started we were watching TV and all the lights went off,” he said.

“We were on the first floor and the whole room was shaking like mad. If we would have stood up, we would have fallen over. We crawled on the floor. We initially made it to the bathroom but it was our first night and we didn’t realise there was no bath. We made our way downstairs and sheltered under an arch.”

The couple had arrived at their hotel after a two-hour taxi ride from the Nazca Lines, the mysterious images carved in the barren landscape that are a big tourist destination. Mrs Robinson, who had never experienced an earthquake before, called the trip “a holiday I won’t forget in a hurry”.

After the earthquake the couple spent several hours outside on the hotel golf course before returning to their room. But they spent a sleepless night because of the continued aftershocks. “We had backpacks near the door and every time there was an aftershock we just took our things and left the room,” she said. “We must have got up four or five times in the night.”

The US Geological Survey said that Wednesday’s earthquake struck at 6:40 pm about 90 miles (145km) southeast of Lima at a depth of about 25 miles.

Roberto Ocno, the head of the country’s fire fighter service, said that at least 500 people were killed, and 1,600 injured. The Peruvian Ministry of Civil Defence said that the count could rise as news came in from outlying areas with traditional adobe houses.

“It’s quite likely that the numbers will continue to go up since the destruction of the houses in the area is quite total,” Margareta Wahlstrom, the UN’s deputy emergency relief coordinator in New York, said. “I heard something like 80 per cent in certain traditional areas because of the way houses are constructed.”

Rescuers searched for trapped worshippers in a collapsed church in Pisco — the town made famous by the Pisco sour cocktail. The Church of San Clemente in Pisco caved in during the two-minute earthquake as the evening service was under way.

State-run Peru TV reported that about 200 people were feared trapped under the ruins. Sergio Alvarez, an Oxfam relief worker who travelled to the worst hit zone, said last night: “All the adobe buildings in Pisco have collapsed. The modern buildings are fine. The Peruvian Civil Defence has told me that they calculate that at least 50 per cent of the houses in Pisco have collapsed. San Andres, in Canete, has also suffered a great amount of destruction. There are people trapped in their houses.”

“The dead are scattered by the dozens on the streets,” Pisco’s Mayor Juan Mendoza said. “We don’t have lights, water, communications. Most houses have fallen. Churches, stores, hotels — everything is destroyed.” The Mayor of the nearby town of Ica, Mariano Nacimiento, said at least 70 people were killed in his city.

In Chincha, a small town near Pisco, 30 bodies were piled up on the patio of the local hospital. Hundreds of the injured lay on walkways and in the gardens, kept outside for fear that aftershocks could topple the cracked walls.

“Our services are saturated and half of the hospital has collapsed,” Dr Huber Malma said as he attended to dozens of people. The earthquake toppled a wall in Chincha’s prison, allowing at least 600 prisoners to escape.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said last night it was possible that some British tourists were caught up in the earthquake’s aftermath, but no British casualties had been reported. It set up a crisis helpline for concerned relatives of travellers who had been inundating the embassy in Lima with phone calls. About 61,000 British tourists visit Peru annually, according to the Foreign Office, and August is the busiest time of year.

Deadly tremors

1619 The city of Trujillo, founded in 1534 and named in honour of Francisco Pizarro’s birthplace, is destroyed by a violent earthquake. More than 300 deaths are recorded

1746 One of Peru’s deadliest earthquakes shakes Lima, damaging its great stone cathedral and killing about 5,000 people

1946 The town of Quiches, south of Lima, is annihilated by a 7.3 magnitude tremor that claims 1,400 lives

1970 An earthquake of 7.9 magnitude destroys the towns of Yungay, Huaraz and Chimbote, triggering devastating landslides. More than 50,000 are left dead and 600,000 homeless

1990 An earthquake of 5.8 magnitude strikes north of the town of Moyobamba, killing 101 people

2001 Southern Peru is devastated by an offshore earthquake measuring 8.4. Seventy-five people are killed, 26 by the tsunami that followed, and homes and historic buildings crumble

Source: US Geological Survey; Times archives

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