Earthquake in Algeria; More than 200 dead, Hundreds Injured

22/05/2003| IslamWeb

More than 200 people were killed, and hundreds more injured in an earthquake that struck the country late Wednesday, state radio said. It said about 230 people were killed in the Boumerdes and Algiers region. About 50 more were killed and some 300 injured in the region of Rouiba, also east of Algiers, the radio said. Terrified residents fled their homes as walls as shook from the effects of the tremor at 7:45 pm (1845 GMT), leaving rubble scattered about the streets, witnesses reported. Algeria is regularly hit by earthquakes, but residents said the latest appeared to be stronger than usual. In Rome, Italy's national geophysics institute described the quake as a major seismic event which had released a large amount of energy. It said the quake lasted five minutes, with brief pauses. The Earth Sciences Observatory in the French city of Strasbourg said the quake had measured six on the Richter scale. The last tremor to hit this region was in December of that year, and measured 4.4. A quake in November 2000 registered 5.8 on the Richter scale, the Strasbourg observatory recalled. **PHOTO CAPTION*** An earthquake measuring six on the Richter scale shook the Algerian capital Algiers.(AFP)