At least 50 people were killed and about 450 injured late on Wednesday after the largest earthquake in Peru in more than three decades, local media reported.

The 7.9-strong temblor hit about 145 kilometres south- southeast of the country's capital city of Lima, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The dead included at least 46 people killed in the southern coastal town of Ica, where buildings and a church collapsed.

"There have been losses in the south," Peruvian President Alan Garcia said.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and chose to camp out on public squares rather than risk facing the aftershocks inside their homes. The government was forced to declare a state of emergency over the disaster.

The shock set off tsunami signals and advisories for Peru, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras and Hawaii, which were later cancelled.

The quake was also felt in Colombia's capital, Bogota and in Coquimbo, Chile, about 2,000 kilometres from Lima. There were no immediate reports of injuries or property damage, officials reported.

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