Algiers, May 26: A 13-year-old girl has been pulled out alive from underneath a pile of rubble where she had been trapped for four days since a massive earthquake hit northern Algeria, radio reported today. The girl, who sold cakes made outside a shop, was rescued last night in the town of Bordj Menaiel, 80 kilometers east of Algiers, with only minor injuries. The girl was well known in the Bastos area of Bordj Menaiel, where she sold the cakes made by her mother to help her poverty-stricken family, said the radio. She told rescue workers that she had survived by eating the cakes, which she had carefully divided up into daily rations.
Meanwhile, national television reported last night that a woman had been rescued in Corso, another north Algerian town hit by the earthquake which struck the country at evening dinnertime on Wednesday.

The latest toll has put the number of dead at 2,162, with 8,965 injured, but officials have warned that the toll will continue to climb.

Bureau Report