0
ALGIERS, May 22: Almost 1,100 people were killed and 7,000 injured as an earthquake rocked the Algerian capital and nearby towns on Wednesday night.
Measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, the quake sent terrified residents running into the streets in Algiers and towns to the east, along the populous Mediterranean coastal strip. The tremor, felt as far away as Spain, was Algeria’s worst in more than 20 years.
The worst devastation was in the town of Reghaia, just east of Algiers, where a seven-storey block of 78 apartments collapsed, and more than 350 people were feared to have died.
Hospitals in many cities found it almost impossible to cope. In some cities, bodies had to be piled up outside the hospitals and patients were treated in the open air.
In Algiers around 60 buildings were destroyed, among them the Training Centre for the National Sporting Elite.
“There’s nothing left of the building. Over 200 dead were found last night (Wednesday) and today more are being recovered,” said an eyewitness.
“You can smell the victims. Rescue workers are saying ‘One, here, one here’ as the search dogs find the dead”.
In Rouiba, a relatively prosperous city some 30kms from the eastern edge of Algiers, one building after another was reduced to rubble.
“I have never seen such a disaster in my life. Everything has collapsed,” said Yazid Khelfaoui, whose mother was killed. The rubble of his apartment block was all around him.
The earth shook at 7.44pm (1844 GMT), when many families were gathered at home for dinner.
Algerian television showed dozens of bodies lined up under sheets and blankets, some clearly children. “There were so many wounded, we couldn’t count them,” one harassed doctor said.
“It’s a tragic moment,” Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia told state radio. “It’s a misfortune that hits the whole of Algeria.”
In the city of Boumerdes, on the coast, media spoke of people jumping from windows when the quake struck.
Bulouenes Sidiali, a resident of one block that collapsed to its foundations, said the building was built only six months ago.
“My friend went crazy this morning when he found his wife dead,” he said.
Ouyahia said security forces were on alert to stop looting in a country riven by a decade of violence.
200 AFTERSHOCKS: Some 200 aftershocks hit northern Algeria in the first two hours after the quake and authorities said more would follow.
At the capital’s Mustapha hospital, families gathered to inquire about loved ones. Police forced back a growing crowd.
“I want to see my brother. I want to know if he is dead or still alive. Please let me inside,” said Ahmed, 40, who had come to Algiers from Rouiba. He wept as he spoke.
Algerian television showed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, visibly moved, holding the hands of a middle-aged woman in hospital whose face and lips were shaking uncontrollably.
At the sports centre, a three-storey building in its own grounds, at least four people died — a Romanian gymnastics coach, a national swimming coach, a weightlifter and a cook.
France dispatched 120 rescuers with sniffer dogs and equipment to its former colony. Germany sent 22 technicians, also with dogs and high-tech sound and imaging equipment.
Most of Algeria’s 32 million people live in the north, away from the Sahara desert.
The US Geological Survey said the quake’s epicentre had been 70kms east of Algiers. It said the quake was the biggest to hit Algeria since 1980, when one measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale demolished more than 70 per cent of the city of El Asnam, west of the capital.—Reuters
