Hundreds queue for food after Spanish earthquake

Hundreds of people queued for food aid in the Spanish town of Lorca and wandered the streets wrapped in blankets after an earthquake killed eight people and injured more than 120.

Thousands of residents of the town slept on the street overnight, unable to return home after the 5.1 magnitude quake destroyed masonry and building facades, crushed cars and littered streets with bricks. Many of Lorca's 90,000 residents were waiting for housing inspectors to give them the green light to enter buildings.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said 800 military and civil guard personnel were in Lorca, 370 army tents had been sent, and a camp hospital had been set up.

The number of fatalities was revised down to eight, including one teenage girl, from an earlier report of 10. More than 120 people were injured, three critically, officials said.

Food distribution points were set up in parks and troops set up temporary tent shelter for 3,000 people made homeless by the quake.

"We spent the night outside here in the square. The emergency workers are giving us food and blankets. We're not allowed to go into our apartment until an engineer comes and looks at our building," said Edgar Rosales, 38, an Ecuadorian immigrant.

"The important thing is that we're all okay. We're all here together now," Rosales said.

Earthquakes causing extensive damage and fatalities are rare in Spain although the south of the country has extensive faultlines. The US Geological Survey registered one dead in a 1997 earthquake.

In 1969 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed 19 people in the southern town of Huelva, according to Spain's National Geographic Institute.

This earthquake was revised down by the USGS from an initial estimate of magnitude 5.3, but was relatively close to the surface at a depth of just one kilometer.