Rescuers in Albania have pulled at least 22 bodies and more than 40 survivors from the rubble following a powerful earthquake, as several European countries stepped in to help with the relief efforts.
Teams of soldiers, police and emergency workers overnight on Tuesday 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.
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Most of those found dead were pulled from wreckage in the coastal city of Durres and Thumane, a town north of the capital, Tirana.
Albania has been hit by the worst earthquake in decades.
At least 21 were killed and hundreds injured in the 6.4-magnitude earthquake. Rescue workers continue to search for survivors. pic.twitter.com/EVJo2sL5ie
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 27, 2019
In neighbouring Kurbin, a man in his 50s died in the morning after jumping from his building. Another perished in a car accident after the earthquake tore open parts of the road, the defence ministry said.
In Thumane, locals watching emergency workers comb over a collapsed building shouted the names of their loved ones still inside: “Mira!”, “Ariela!”, “Selvije!”.
Dulejman Kolaveri, a man in his 50s in Thumane, told AFP news agency he feared his 70-year-old mother and six-year-old niece were trapped inside the five-storey apartment, because they lived on the top floor.
“I don’t know if they are dead or alive. I’m afraid of their fate … only God knows,” he said with trembling hands.
About 300 local soldiers and 1,900 police were sent to Durres and Thumane [Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA-EFE]
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 was seen being carried out of the rubble on a stretcher in Thumane.
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.
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 more than 600 people have received first aid for injuries, mostly minor.
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.
The Balkan peninsula lies near the fault line of two large tectonic plates – the African and Eurasian [Gent Shkullaku/AFP]
About 300 local soldiers and 1,900 police were sent to Durres and Thumane to assist with the rescue efforts, according to authorities.
Italy, France, Romania, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia sent 200 specialised troops, tools and teams of tracker dogs to help the relief effort, Defence Minister Olta Xhacka said.
The quake was centred 30km (19 miles) west of Tirana, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, and was also felt in several neighbouring countries and beyong, incluiding in the southern Italian region of Puglia across the Adriatic Sea from Albania.
Hours later, a magnitude 5.4 earthquake rattled Bosnia, with an epicentre 75km (45 miles) south of the capital, Sarajevo, monitors said. There were no reports of injuries.
The Balkan peninsula lies near the fault line of two large tectonic plates – the African and Eurasian – and earthquakes are frequent.
Hundreds of people in Durres took shelter for the night in tents set up in the city’s football stadium [Gent Shkullaku/AFP]
