|
Algeria
Quake Death Toll Climbs To 770 : TV
 |
|
Rescue
workers rescue a young boy from the rubble of a collapsed building
in an eastern suburb of Algiers
|
ALGIERS,
May 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - At least 770 people were
killed in the violent earthquake that hit northern Algeria, national
television announced Thursday, May 22, at the end of its lunchtime news
program, warning that the toll was likely to climb even higher.
Less
than an hour earlier, at the start of the news program, state-run
television had announced that 707 people had died in Wednesday night's
tremor, which it said measured 5.8 on the open-ended Richter scale,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
It
did not mention how many people had been injured in the quake.
A
toll announced earlier by state-run radio had put the number of dead at
643, with 4,696 injured.
President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika had hurried to Boumerdes, 50 kilometers (30 miles)
east of the Mediterranean coastal capital Algiers, which had been the
hardest hit by the quake, with 396 people killed, the television report
said.
More
than a dozen buildings in Boumerdes had collapsed, and buildings had
been flattened in several other towns, reports said. Several old
buildings also collapsed in the densely-populated Algiers neighborhoods
of Bab El-Oued and Belcourt.
The
capital Algiers had the second highest number of fatalities, with 224
people killed by the quake in the capital, it said.
The
toll was only provisional and likely to climb sharply in the coming
hours, television said, echoing earlier statements by media and
government officials.
State-run
radio and the interior ministry warned Thursday morning that the toll
from the quake was likely to rise steeply, as scores of buildings had
collapsed.
Prime
Minister Ahmed Ouyahia also warned that the toll was likely to climb
further because "there are still lots of people trapped under the
rubble."
Ouyahia,
who visited casualties in an Algiers hospital, told the French radio
station RTL the quake was a "national catastrophe."
He
said Algeria would need to call on friendly countries for help. France,
the former colonial power of the north African country, said it was
sending a 60-strong rescue team.
Many
Algiers residents spent the night outside in public parks, and others
who had cars packed them up with their belongings and fled the city.
"I
was on the balcony, looking at central Algiers when I saw what looked
like an enormous dust cloud. I went dizzy as the building began to sway
back and forth like a see-saw," said one resident of an Algiers
tower block.
"All
the furniture fell over, the chandelier flew out of the window."
The
main shock - which was followed by a series of aftershocks that were
continuing at daybreak on Thursday - was felt as far away as southern
Spain on the other side of the Mediterranean, although no casualties
were reported there.
The
seismological laboratory in Strasbourg, France, put the intensity at six
points on the Richter scale, while the Algerian one estimated it at 5.8
points.
The
epicenter was at Thenia, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of the
capital.
State
radio also issued an appeal for employees of the state gas and
electricity company to go their places of work, to help restore
utilities to stricken areas.
Residents
of affected areas were advised to turn off their gas supplies and vacate
their homes.
Northern
Algeria is located in a seismic zone and has experienced several deadly
earthquakes in recent decades.
In
September 1954, some 1,400 people died and 14,000 were injured in the
northern town of El-Asnam -- then known as Orleansville.
And
on October 10, 1980, some 3,000 were killed and 8,000 injured in a
second quake in the same region.
|
