- Title: ALGERIA: MORE BODIES PULLED FROM EARTHQUAKE DEVASTATION.
- Date: 25th May 2003
- Summary: (W7) BOUMERDES, ALGERIA (23 MAY 2003) (REUTERS) 1. GV: HEAVY DIGGING EQUIPMENT MOVING RUBBLE 0.08 2. MV: PEOPLE SEARCHING THROUGH RUBBLE WITH HANDS 0.16 3. VARIOUS: RUSSIAN RESCUER IN BLUE SUIT WITH DOG; DOG SNIFFING AROUND IN RUBBLE; SLV EQUIPMENT MOVING RUBBLE; PEOPLE CUTTING THROUGH BRICKS WITH ELECTRIC SAW (6 SHOTS) 0.47 4. VARIOUS: BODY BEING PULLED OUT OF RUBBLE; RESCUERS CARRYING BODY TO AMBULANCE; AMBULANCE DRIVING AWAY (8 SHOTS) 1.34 5. GV: PEOPLE TAKING BODY OUT OF AMBULANCE AND INTO MAKESHIFT MORGUE; BODIES IN MAKESHIFT MORGUE, IN GYMNASIUM; RELATIVES MOURNING (5 SHOTS) 2.00 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 9th June 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BOUMERDES, ALGERIA
- Country: Algeria
- Reuters ID: LVA6IETSH0VJC0QSVL3HQW49180M
- Story Text: Several foreign rescue teams and doctors have joined a
search-and-rescue operation after Wednesday's earthquake in
Algeria. Experts are conducting round-the-clock search efforts
to rescue any survivors from the worst earthquake to hit
Algeria in 20 years.
The hopes of finding survivors amid the devastation
continued fading on Friday (May 23, 2003) as the death toll topped
1,600 despite frantic efforts by teams of foreign rescue
workers and sniffer dogs.
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.
Officials said the area worst-hit by the earthquake, which
measured 6.7 on the Richter scale, was Boumerdes to the east
of Algiers. That town alone accounts for some 835 of the dead
and still has more than 1,200 missing.
Earthquake rescue veterans from several European countries
fanned out in teams across the town, using sniffer dogs and
listening devices to find survivors amid the rubble. But with
the temperature up to 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), no
one pretended the chances of survival were good.
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.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent federation appealed for 2
million Swiss francs (1.55 million U.S. dollars) to help the
local Red Crescent provide food and shelter to more than
10,000 victims.
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