Algerian Earthquake Kills More Than 250

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 5-22-2003 | Hassane Mefthi

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Algerian Earthquake Kills More Than 250

Thursday May 22, 2003 3:19 AM

By HASSANE MEFTAHI

Associated Press Writer

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - A powerful earthquake shook the Algerian capital region Wednesday night, killing more than 250 people and injuring more than 1,600, state-run radio said. Rescuers feared families were buried in the rubble as apartment building walls collapsed, trees crushed cars and weeping survivors walked amid debris.

``This is a misfortune that has struck the Algerian people,'' Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said on television.

The quake was deadliest in towns east of the capital of Algiers, particularly in Rouiba, where more than 100 people died, the radio report said. About 15 people were killed in Algiers.

The prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia said whole families may be buried under collapsed homes and so the initial death toll may be ``unfortunately partial.''

The quake hit about 7:45 p.m., cutting electricity in some neighborhoods of Algiers and causing panic throughout the city. It was followed by at least three aftershocks.

The U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors quakes around the world, said the temblor had a preliminary magnitude of 6.7. Algerian officials put it much lower at 5.2. The cause of the discrepancy wasn't immediately clear.

State radio said that most of the more than 250 deaths occurred near the epicenter, located near Thenia, about 40 miles east of Algiers. It said 1,672 people were injured.

The radio report said 104 people were killed in the town of Rouiba, 20 miles east of Algiers. In addition, 50 died in Boumerdes, about six miles from the epicenter; 42 were killed in the town of Ain Taya, about 20 miles from the capital.

Two more deaths were counted in the Berber capital of Tizi Ouzou, and one more in Bouira, both further east. The radio said several others were killed, but did not give a location for those deaths.

Ouyahia said that more than 200 people were killed and 1,500 injured.

``I saw the earth tremble. I saw people jump from the window of the hotel,'' Icham Mouiss of Boumerdes told French television station LCI.

Interior Minister Nouredine Yazid Zerhouni traveled to Phenia and Boumerdes. A call for blood donors was issued and medical personnel were asked to pitch in and help.

A hospital in the town of Baghlia was seriously damaged by the quake and numerous roofs in towns around the epicenter caved in, the Interior Ministry said.

In Algiers, cracks appeared in a number of buildings. LCI air footage of a stairwell in one building that had crumbled to the ground. People thronged the streets, afraid to enter their buildings.

Butch Kinerney, spokesman for the U.S. Geological Survey, called it a shallow earthquake that was capable of causing ``significant damage and injuries.''

He said that in 1980, hundreds of people were killed in a magnitude 7.7 quake in the same region. ``This is the largest since then,'' Kinerney said.