Algerian quake toll tipped to reach 2,000

Updated May 24, 2003 12:41:00

Hopes of finding survivors amid the devastation of Algeria's earthquake have faded as the death toll topped 1,600 despite frantic efforts by teams of foreign rescue workers and sniffer dogs.

A bright moment amongst the desolation came when a baby girl was lifted alive from an apartment block which had collapsed into one storey of mangled concrete.

The country's worst tremor in more than two decades struck on Thursday morning (AEST).

Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia says the dead now number more than 1,600.

While he said some 4,200 people had been pulled alive from the rubble of flattened buildings since it happened, he said: "The victim figures are expected to rise."

State news agency APS said 7,207 people had so far been counted as being injured in the quake, which measured 6.7 on the Richter scale.

The Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the death toll could reach 2,000 as rescue teams discover more victims in outlying villages along the North African state's heavily populated Mediterranean coast.

"We do not want to get into the body count game but you are probably going to end up with 2,000," said the federation's operations manager, Iain Logan.

One resident of the capital, Algiers, Amine Loukia, shared a third-floor flat with his mother, who was injured as the roof fell in and walls gave way.

He says he will never forget the moment the quake devastated their lives.

"Shaking, shaking, shaking and non-stop for five or six seconds," he said.

"We don't feel that we need to eat or to drink, because we lost a very big important part of our life - it's our house, our life, our souvenir."

'Message from God'

The chief priest of the main mosque in the capital, Algiers, told worshippers at Friday prayers that the calamity was - like the flooding and quakes that have plagued the country for years - a message from God to those who had chosen to forget him.

"People think the earthquake is a natural phenomenon, they think they can explain it through science," Mohamed Slimane said in a sermon that was aired on national television. "They forget who is behind it, it is God."

Officials said the area worst-hit was Boumerdes, to the east of Algiers.

That town alone accounted for some 835 of the dead and still had more than 1,200 missing.

Off the Spanish coast, around 100 fishing boats were sunk by waves sent across the Mediterranean from the quake's epicentre.

Earthquake rescue veterans from several European countries fanned out in teams across the town, using sniffer dogs and listening devices to find survivors.

Crushed concrete

"Search, search!" one of the rescuers urged his dogs as they disappeared into a mass of broken and crushed concrete that was once a four-storey building.

But with the temperature up to 30 degrees Celsius, no-one pretended the chances of survival were good.

Indeed, the teams moved swiftly on from building to building, leaving local residents and civil protection workers to delve for the dead, sometimes with nothing more than sledgehammers and their bare hands.

A brief flicker of hope came when an elite team of French rescuers pulled two-and-a-half-year-old Yousra Hamenniche out of a hole cut in the roof of her apartment block, which had contracted like a giant concertina when the jolt came.

But her release after more than 36 hours was bitter-sweet for her father: six members of his family were still missing.

Residents said that men and women were in many cases caught in separate rooms when the tremor came - men had been settling down to watch the UEFA Cup soccer final and women had been preparing evening meals.

Some grumbled help had come too late and some, pointing out that older buildings had withstood the shock, accused builders of erecting unsafe structures in a quake-prone region.

"This building can't be more than five years old but Algeria has had earthquakes before. Why weren't we prepared for this?" said Mohammed Sadokuki as he cleared up his ruined drugstore.

Then, brightly for a moment: "You need some headache pills?"

Tens of thousands of Algerians prepared to spend a third night sleeping in the open for fear of after-shocks that could bring down buildings already weakened by the earth's shudders.

In Boumerdes, whole districts were eerily deserted. Shops and cafes lay abandoned and the only sound was dogs barking.

Families sat in cars or, surrounded by their belongings, on mattresses and sofas in the dusty streets. Some had blankets and tents provided by the authorities, but others had nothing.

Some power supplies, water and phone lines were severed.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent federation appealed for 2 million Swiss francs ($AU2.36 million) to help the local Red Crescent provide food and shelter to more than 10,000 victims.

Topics: earthquake, algeria

First posted May 24, 2003 05:47:00