What a horrible story! 1000 killed

[mayfly]

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REGHAIA, Algeria (Reuters) - Rescue teams used bare hands and bulldozers in a frantic search through rubble on Thursday for survivors from an earthquake (news - web sites) in Algiers and nearby towns that killed more than 1,000 people and injured some 7,000.


Reuters Photo


Reuters
Slideshow: Algerian Earthquake Kills Hundreds

Death Toll Rises Under Algerian Rubble
(Reuters Video)



Stunned and weeping families were given hope about 17 hours after the quake when a man was hauled out alive after being trapped beneath a wrecked building in the city of Boumerdes.


Rescuers said hundreds could still be under debris from the quake.


The quake, 6.7 on the Richter scale, struck the Algerian capital and towns to the east along a populous Mediterranean coastal strip Wednesday night. Terrified people ran into the streets. Many had been indoors for their evening meal.


Others were killed when buildings collapsed in the quake, Algeria's worst in more than 20 years and felt as far away as Spain. Some Algerians angrily accused builders of erecting unsafe structures in a known quake-vulnerable region.


The worst devastation was in the city of Reghaia, just east of Algiers, where a 10-story block of 78 apartments collapsed. About 250 bodies had been pulled out so far, rescuers said.


While rescue efforts went on round the clock, thousands of people were spending a second night outside with food and water running low. Electricity, gas and water supplies and phone lines had been severed in some of the worst-hit areas.


Rescue services urged people not to go back to their homes unless they were safe and said they should keep radios turned on for further announcements.


Former colonial ruler France, Germany, Spain, Britain and neighboring Morocco were among countries to dispatch search and medical teams as Algeria appealed to its citizens for blood donors and stepped up efforts to help the homeless.


HOSPITALS UNDER PRESSURE


Hospitals in many towns found it almost impossible to cope. In some areas, the injured had to be treated in the open air. State television showed dozens of bodies in lines under sheets and blankets.


Nearly 24 hours after the quake struck, Algerian state radio quoted Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni as saying the death stood at 1,092 and 6,782 people had been injured. Zerhouni said it was still a preliminary figure.


President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who toured quake-hit areas, declared three days of national mourning from Friday.


"It's a misfortune that hits the whole of Algeria," Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia told state radio. Most of Algeria's 32 million people live in the north, away from the Sahara desert. Algiers, on the coast, is home to at least 2.6 million.


Ouyahia said security forces were on alert to stop looting in a country riven by a decade of violence by Islamist rebels. The strife has cost more than 100,000 lives and burdened an economy potentially wealthy from natural gas and oil exports.


In Algiers, around 60 buildings were destroyed, among them the Training Center for the National Sporting Elite.


"You can smell the victims. Rescue workers are saying One, here, one here' as the search dogs find the dead," said a Reuters photographer on the scene.





In Rouiba, a relatively prosperous city some 20 miles from the eastern edge of Algiers, one building after another was reduced to rubble.

PERSONAL DISASTERS

"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.

Bulouenes Sidiali, a resident of one block that collapsed to its foundations, said the building was only six months old.

"My friend went crazy this morning when he found his wife dead," Sidiali said. "The government must bring the owners of this firm to justice. They are criminals."

In Boumerdes, media reports said some people had jumped from windows when the quake struck.

Some 200 aftershocks hit northern Algeria in the first two hours after the quake and authorities said more would follow.

The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) said the quake's epicenter had been 70 km (45 miles) 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 percent of the city of El Asnam, west of Algiers. It was subsequently rebuilt as Chlef.

In 1994, about 150,000 were made homeless by an earthquake in northwestern Algeria that killed over 170.

France dispatched 120 rescuers with sniffer dogs and equipment. Germany sent 22 technicians, also with dogs and high-tech sound and imaging equipment. Spain provided a field hospital with 10 doctors and a search team with sniffer dogs.

Britain sent 42 firefighters and two sniffer dogs, while Morocco said it was dispatching 45 civil defense workers.

(Additional reporting by Paul de Bendern in Algiers)


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[mayfly]

Makes me so sad, praying for those poor people.

[3tbear]

I was just reading that story on MSNBC online. I know someone who lives in that exact area of the Epicenter. He lives in Rouiba. There is no way to know whether he is dead or alive. He was a penpal of mine. I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it. It was difficult for me to even read the article. Even without this tragedy, my letters were not getting to him. Things are not as modern in his country, the phone system for instance. I am so saddened by what has happened. Those poor people!!! My heart goes out to them. I will be praying that my friend and his family are OK.


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[chippers21]

The stuff that nightmares are made of......

[freesurfer]

THis is horrible. Thanks for posting this, Ihadn't heard it yet.