Panic-stricken families slept in the streets and parks of Algeria's seaside capital for a second night yesterday, while rescuers led a frenzied hunt for survivors near the epicenter of a devastating earthquake that left more than 1,000 people dead and thousands injured.
Officials said the death toll would only mount as bodies were pulled from buildings leveled by Wednesday's temblor, the country's worst in a generation.
PHOTO: AFP
Thousands of people fled their homes, complaining of shoddy construction and the fear that buildings still standing could soon collapse. Police erected roadblocks and stepped up patrols near the capital, Algiers, to prevent looting.
Entire families were among the dead. The 6.8-magnitude quake crumbled apartment houses, knocked down walls and flattened mosques. Weeping survivors wandered stunned amid the destruction. The injured clogged hospitals. Countless bodies were trapped under the wreckage.
Late Thursday -- some 24 hours after the earth shook -- the official APS news agency said at least 1,092 were dead and 6,782 were injured. An Arab-language state-run radio gave a higher toll of 1,225, as the body-count continued. Many thousands more people were homeless.
"Unfortunately we have not finished establishing these increasingly tragic figures," Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia told reporters in the quake zone. "What is worrying is that there are still many under the rubble."
Emergency squads located four people trapped under the debris, two of them young girls who spoke to rescuers, the report said. The four were expected to be pulled out.
The quake hit about 7:45pm Wednesday, with its epicenter east of Algiers. It was the North African nation's deadliest since a pair of temblors killed up to 5,000 in October 1980, according to the US Geological Survey.
In the downtrodden Bab El Oued neighborhood, one of the worst hit in the capital, thousands of people slept in the streets out of fear that aftershocks could bring down unstable apartment buildings. Makeshift tents were set up in parks for women and children.
Closer to the epicenter, in Roubia, 22km east of the capital, the cries of women mingled with the wail of ambulance sirens. An AP reporter saw blocks of buildings in ruins, with unknown numbers of bodies trapped underneath.
Many rescue services were overwhelmed. Women cried the names of their dead or injured children. Bodies were piled at the town morgue, wrapped in blankets or plastic bags. Mechanical diggers lifted away rubble.
Foreign aid groups and governments sprang into action, rushing over rescue workers, doctors and dogs to search for survivors. Food, blankets and medicine for the shocked, injured and homeless were on their way.
In Algiers, electricity was cut in some neighborhoods and some phone lines were downed. The loss of power and scores of aftershocks that rocked the area in the hours after the quake caused panic.
A four-story hotel frequently used by athletes was severely damaged, killing the Romanian head of Algeria's track and field team and the Bulgarian-born coach of the national weightlifting squad.
Shocks were felt into the Mediterranean. The quake triggered 2-meter waves in Spain's Balearic islands, 280km north of Algiers, that damaged or destroyed 150 boats, officials said.
For Algeria, the quake carried risks of political aftershocks, too.
The government has been battling Islamic insurgents for more than a decade and, with elections due next year, support for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika could slide if efforts to help quake survivors flag.
Muslim fundamentalists have traditionally excelled in helping the needy. To oversee rescue efforts, Bouteflika canceled plans to join a summit of world leaders in France next week.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was