Algerians flee capital after fourth quake

Traumatised Algerians fled the capital Algiers and other built-up areas yesterday as a fourth tremor in just over a week rocked the country.

The normally bustling city felt like a ghost town as locals packed their bags after a quake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hit the Mediterranean coast before dawn.

A quake in the same region killed more than 2,000 people last week.

Yesterday's quake, which was followed by two smaller tremors during the day, left some people injured and several buildings reduced to rubble, but there were no deaths.

"People are fleeing town. Algiers is empty, everyone's joining their families elsewhere," Kenza Djouhri, owner of an estate agency in Algiers, told Reuters.

"My close friends are coming with me to my family's house outside Algiers, which is safe. If we're going to die, we do it together."

Authorities said people should remain calm but not sleep in damaged buildings.

"I urge people to stay calm. It's an aftershock. More will come," said Mohamed Hamadache, a researcher at Algeria's Geophysical, Astronomical and Astrophysics Research Centre.

The official toll from the May 21 quake is 2,251 dead and 10,243 injured, but hundreds are still unaccounted for.

Tens of thousands are now sleeping outdoors in Algiers and the quake zone to its east.

Authorities have made available more than 17,000 tents to accommodate 150,000 people for several months.

The epicentre of yesterday's quake, like the previous ones, was near the town of Zemmouri, some 50 km east of Algiers, a city of three to four million.

"I jumped up in a flash, whisked away my wife and two children and ran outside," Abdelkader Goucheme, a guide in central Algiers, told Reuters. "Better safe than sorry."

A waiter working at a central hotel, Hamid Ben Mohammad, said: "I was woken up by it. It was a real shocker this time but we were prepared in the hotel. People are being driven insane by this."

An Algerian civil defence official added: "We've been lucky this time because people are smart enough not to live inside damaged buildings."

Local businesses said they were concerned the fear gripping Algiers and surrounding areas would hurt business as people stayed away from work.

The government was discussing an extra budget on Thursday to deal with the crisis.

Seismologist Lars Ottemoller from the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh said the aftershocks would gradually lessen in magnitude and frequency.

"The larger the main shock, the larger the aftershocks you expect. So it is not unusual, although it is unfortunate" he said.

The oil-rich North African country of 32 million people is no stranger to natural disasters. In 1980 some 3,000 people were killed when a quake devastated the western city of El Asnam, now called Chlef.

Algiers, which suffered about 1,000 deaths in last week's quake, was victim of another disaster in 2001 when floods swept away 750 people in the district Bab El Oued.