Death toll reaches 30
Emergency workers in Albania yesterday pulled dusty bodies from the ruins of buildings gutted by a violent earthquake and searched desperately for survivors as the death toll reached 30 with hundreds injured.
Tirana declared a state of emergency in the areas hardest-hit by Tuesday’s pre-dawn 6.4 magnitude earthquake: the coastal city of Durres and the town of Thumane, where victims were trapped by toppled buildings.
With the help of dogs and more than 200 experts flown in from across Europe, rescuers raced against time to locate survivors of the most powerful earthquake in the country in decades.
Early yesterday in Thumane, tormented relatives wept as search teams retrieved the remains of a married couple, Pellumb and Celike Greku, from one of the buildings torn down by the force of the earthquake.
Their son Saimir was rescued alive from the rubble Tuesday night but later died in hospital, according to relatives and neighbours.
“Terrible, terrible,” an elderly woman dressed in black shouted as the bodies were carried away, tearing at her hair.
Another local, 60-year-old Valbona Cupi, said Saimir had been visiting his parents from abroad when the earthquake struck before dawn on Tuesday.
“They went to heaven together, they were very honest and poor people,” she said in tears.
Nearby, rescue teams were combing another crumbled building in hopes of reaching a young woman they believed may still be alive after the more than 24-hour ordeal.
Earlier in the day they pulled out the body of a young man.
By yesterday morning, the official death toll was up to 28 while 45 people had been rescued, the defence ministry said.
There was no estimate on how many people remained missing.
Some 650 people have been treated for injuries, mostly minor, according to Albania’s health ministry.
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