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| Rescuers have been
working to move the rubble in the search for
survivors |
| 1980: Thousands feared dead in Algerian
quake |
England have
Two big earthquakes have struck the northern Algerian town of El Asnam.
An official report said up to 20,000 had died and many tens of
thousands have been injured or are missing.
The main hospital, a big department store, the central mosque, a girls'
school and two housing complexes have been destroyed.
In 1954, an earthquake killed 1,657 people in El Asnam, which was then
called Orleansville.
The first quake hit just before 1330 local time. It measured 7.3 points
on the Richter scale - the biggest ever recorded for that part of Algeria.
Three hours later there was a second quake registering 6.3 points.
Telephone lines between El Asnam and the capital, Algiers, have been
cut.
The damage to the local hospital is so bad that casualties are being
sent more than 100 miles (160km) to Algiers and the northwestern port of
Oran for treatment.
In the town centre where the damage is worst, whole blocks of flats
have been reduced to heaps of rubble.
A central four-storey hotel collapsed under the weight of its roof,
demolishing all 1,509 rooms beneath and burying many of the occupants.
A lot of buildings collapsed, but their flat roofs made of reinforced
concrete remained intact, crashing down on top of the crumpled walls and
creating tomb-like spaces beneath.
Within hours of the earthquake, many giant earth-moving machines were
on the scene helping remove the rubble that buried so many people.
Most of the bodies have been taken to the grounds of the local hospital
for identification.
The rescuers are trying to recover the bodies as quickly as possible
because of the risk of a typhoid epidemic.
A mass vaccination programme is already planned for later in the week
while demolition teams are regularly disinfected to try to limit the
likelihood of the disease occurring.
The town's population has tripled since the last quake in 1954, with
the result that although this was a less powerful upheaval, it caused much
more concentrated damage.
The town centre was home to 150,000 people and another 50,000 lived in
the surrounding villages, where hardly a building has been left standing.
Doctors and medical staff have been working without a break since the
quake struck but in the outlying areas many more doctors and medicines are
needed.
