Rescue workers continued to sift through rubble today, hoping to find survivors of an earthquake in the Algerian capital and nearby towns that killed more than 1,000 people and injured nearly 7,000.
Measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, the quake sent terrifiedresidents running into the streets last night inAlgiers and towns to the east along a populous Mediterraneancoastal strip. The tremor, felt as far away as Spain, wasAlgeria's worst in more than 20 years.
The worst devastation was in the town of Reghaia, just eastof Algiers, where a seven-storey block of 78 apartmentscollapsed, and more than 350 people were feared to have died.
Hospitals in many towns found it almost impossible to cope.In some areas, bodies had to be piled up outside the hospitalsand patients were treated in the open air.
Some 24 hours after the quake struck, Algerian state radioquoted Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni as saying thedeath now stood at 1,092 and 6,782 people had been injured.Rescuers said hundreds were still missing.
Zerhouni said it was still a preliminary figure. The fate ofsome people buried under shattered buildings is still not known.
In Algiers around 60 buildings were destroyed, among themthe Training Centre for the National Sporting Elite.
"There's nothing left of the building. Over 200 dead werefound last night and today more are being recovered," said aReuters photographer on the scene."You can smell the victims. Rescue workers are saying `One,here, one here' as the search dogs find the dead."
In Rouiba, a relatively prosperous city some 30 km (20miles) from the eastern edge of Algiers, one building afteranother was reduced to rubble.
"I have never seen such a disaster in my life. Everythinghas collapsed," said Yazid Khelfaoui, whose mother was killed.The rubble of his apartment block was all around him.
The earth shook at 7:44 p.m. (1844 GMT), when many familieswere gathered at home for dinner.
Algerian television showed dozens of bodies lined up undersheets and blankets, some clearly children. "There were so manywounded, we couldn't count them," one harassed doctor said.
"It's a tragic moment," Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia toldstate radio. "It's a misfortune that hits the whole of Algeria."
In the city of Boumerdes on the coast, media spoke of peoplejumping from windows when the quake struck.
Bulouenes Sidiali, a resident of one block that collapsed toits foundations, said the building was only six months old.
"My friend went crazy this morning when he found his wifedead," Sidiali said. "The government must bring the owners ofthis firm to justice. They are criminals."
Ouyahia said security forces were on alert to stop lootingin a country riven by a decade of violence by Islamist rebels.The strife has cost more than 100,000 lives and burdened aneconomy potentially wealthy from natural gas and oil exports.
Some 200 aftershocks hit northern Algeria in the first twohours after the quake and authorities said more would follow.
At Algiers' principal Mustapha hospital, families gatheredto inquire about loved ones. Police forced back a growing crowd.
"I want to see my brother. I want to know if he is dead orstill alive. Please let me inside," said Ahmed, 40, who had cometo Algiers from Rouiba. He wept as he spoke.
Algerian television showed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika,visibly moved, holding the hands of a middle-aged woman inhospital whose face and lips were shaking uncontrollably.
Bouteflika later declared three days of national mourningfrom tomorrow.
At the sports centre, a three-storey building in its owngrounds, at least four people died -- a Romanian gymnasticscoach, a national swimming coach, a weightlifter and a cook.
France dispatched 120 rescuers with sniffer dogs andequipment to its former colony. Germany sent 22 technicians,also with dogs and high-tech sound and imaging equipment. Spainsaid it was sending a field hospital with 10 doctors and asearch team with sniffer dogs. Britain is sending 42firefighters and two sniffer dogs.
Most of Algeria's 32 million people live in the north, awayfrom the Sahara desert. Algiers, on the coast, is home to atleast 2.6 million.
The US Geological Survey said the quake's epicentre hadbeen 70 km (45 miles) east of Algiers. It said the quake was thebiggest to hit Algeria since 1980, when one measuring 7.7 on theRichter scale demolished more than 70 percent of the city of ElAsnam, west of the capital, subsequently rebuilt as Chlef.
In 1994, about 150,000 were made homeless by an earthquakein northwestern Algeria that killed over 170.