ALGERIA: RESCUE WORKERS PROBE RUBBLE OF COLLAPSED HOUSE IN HOPE OF FINDING EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS

Record ID: 216708

  • Title: ALGERIA: RESCUE WORKERS PROBE RUBBLE OF COLLAPSED HOUSE IN HOPE OF FINDING EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS
  • Date: 25th May 2003
  • Summary: (W5) BORDJ MENAEL, 100 KM EAST OF ALGIERS, ALGERIA (MAY 25, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV CROWD OF ONLOOKERS PAN TO HAS RESCUE WORKERS DIGGING IN RUBBLE 0.13 2. SCU ONLOOKERS COVERING NOSES FROM SMELL OF CORPSES; SLV RESCUE WORKER HAMMERING INTO COLLAPSED BUILDING; MV ONLOOKER COVERING NOSE; MV RESCUE WORKERS DIGGING OUT BODY FROM RUBBLE; MV BODY UNDER RU
  • Embargoed: 9th June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BORDJ MENAEL, 100 KM EAST OF ALGIERS, ALGERIA
  • Country: Algeria
  • Reuters ID: LVADDNPURF5AG5BYUMPXL40NGO6X
  • Story Text: Rescue workers have probed the rubble of a collapsed
    house in the earthquake-hit town of Bordj Menael, hoping to
    find the bodies of people killed in the quake which rocked
    Algeria five days ago.

    Well over 1,000 people were missing and 15,000
    homeless on Sunday (May 25, 2003) following the North African
    country's most devastating tremor in more than 20 years.

    Official figures showed 2,047 people were killed and 8,626
    hurt in Wednesday night's (May 21) quake, which measured 6.7
    on the Richter scale.

    Anger has grown as survivors accused the government of
    turning a blind eye to shoddy construction in a quake-prone
    area and of standing by as the death toll mounted.

    Some vented fury at President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on
    Saturday (May 24) when he visited badly hit areas. Angry
    crowds chanted "assassin" at the him and kicked and threw
    stones at his car.

    Newspaper Le Matin splashed across its front page: "Resign
    Mr Bouteflika", saying no president since Algeria's 1962
    independence from France had been so insulted by its citizens.

    Thousands of residents of the Mediterranean provinces of
    Algiers and Boumerdes spent a fourth night in the open, having
    lost their homes or being too scared to return to those still
    standing.

    Rescue teams worked with sniffer dogs or crawled into
    rubble with torches, cameras and sensitive microphones to
    probe for life in the remains of apartment blocks.

    "There are five or six people still remaining here," said
    a man at the site of one collapsed building.

    "Here there is a family inside a car under the rubble.

    There is nothing we can do because we have no equipment," said
    Kamal, another volunteer at the scene of devastation.

    Hundreds of bodies have been found, but few people have
    been rescued alive.

    Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia has already begun preparing
    the nation of 32 million inhabitants for the end of the
    search.

    The government said it was trying to prevent an outbreak
    of disease as bodies rotted under debris in temperatures above
    30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit). A lack of clean running
    water and sanitary facilities have added to the health hazard.

    Efforts continued to restore damaged phone lines, power
    and water supplies and officials said they would destroy
    buildings cracked beyond repair.


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