Strong Earthquake Rocks Algeria; at Least 20 Killed

A strong earthquake rocked western Algeria on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and injuring scores, state-run radio and a hospital doctor said.

An official statement broadcast on the radio said the quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8, shook several western provinces of the North African country at 6:37 p.m. local time, killing at least 20 people and injuring 75.

An Interior Ministry statement said the tremor’s epicenter was in the Tessala Mountains, where the hardest-hit town of Ain Temouchent is located.

Earlier, a doctor at an Ain Temouchent hospital said that, in addition to the dead, there were 120 injured, 10 of them in serious condition.

Officials at the major oil and gas export terminal at Azrew said the quake had caused no damage.

Television said the quake had a magnitude of 5.6 in Oran--Algeria’s second-largest city--causing panic among citizens, who ran out of their homes. It said there were no immediate reports of casualties or significant damage in the city.

The government said in its statement that the interior and health ministers had been sent to supervise relief operations in areas hit by the quake.

In neighboring Morocco, the official MAP news agency said a quake with a magnitude 5.2 had hit the northeastern city of Oujda but caused no injuries or damage.