More than 20 dead as Albania hunts for earthquake survivors
DURRËS, Albania — Albanian rescuers searched rubble through the night looking for survivors trapped in buildings that toppled Tuesday in the strongest earthquake to hit the country in decades, with
Teams of soldiers, police and emergency workers sifted through the debris of shredded apartment blocks and hotels in towns near Albania's northwest Adriatic coast, close to the epicentre of the 6.4 magnitude earthquake that rattled the country before dawn.
By evening the toll was 22 dead, according to the defence ministry.
In neighbouring Kurbin a man in his fifties died in the morning after jumping from his building in panic. Another perished in a car accident after the earthquake tore open parts of the road, the ministry said.
"The rescue teams will continue all night," defence ministry spokeswoman Albana
"We must be careful because the night makes any operation more difficult," she added.
Earlier in
"I don't know if they are dead or alive. I'm afraid of their fate... only God knows," he said with trembling hands.
There were also brief bursts of joy during the day as rescuers delicately extracted survivors.
One thin, middle-aged man covered in a film of grey dust
In Durres, onlookers cheered "Bravo!" as a team used ropes to rescue a young man from the wreckage of a toppled seaside hotel in a two-hour operation.
Night in the stadium
Afraid to return home after a series of powerful aftershocks, hundreds of people in Durres took shelter for the night in tents set up in the city's football stadium.
The health ministry said that
During a visit to victims in a hospital in Tirana, Prime Minister Edi Rama told local media that Wednesday would be a national "day of mourning".
"We have lost human lives, we have also saved a lot of lives," he said.
Some 300 local soldiers and 1,900 police
Aid also poured in from around Europe, with teams from Italy, Greece and Romania among those deployed to help.
Albania's cities and coastline have undergone rapid development in recent decades, and illegal construction ignoring building codes is rife.
Felt across the Balkans
Tuesday's quake was the strongest to hit the Durres region since 1926, seismologist Rrapo Ormeni told
Albanian authorities described it as the most powerful in the last 20-30 years.
It struck at 3:54 am local time (0254 GMT), with an epicentre 34 kilometres (about 20 miles) northwest of Tirana, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
In Tirana, panicked residents ran out onto the streets and huddled together after the quake struck.
Several powerful aftershocks followed, including one of 5.3 magnitude.
The Balkan peninsula lies near the fault line of two large tectonic plates
The movements of the small Adriatic micro-plate also produces earthquakes, according to Kresimir Kuk from the Croatian seismological institute.
The most devastating quake in recent times hit North Macedonia's capital Skopje in July 1963, killing around a thousand people and destroying some 80 percent of the city.
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