At least 16 dead as quake hits Albania
RESCUE crews used excavators to search for survivors trapped in toppled apartment buildings after a powerful pre-dawn earthquake in Albania killed at least 16 people and injured more than 600.
The 6.4-magnitude quake was felt across the southern Balkans early yesterday and was followed by multiple aftershocks.
In nearby Bosnia, another temblor with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 struck south-east of the capital and rattled Sarajevo.
There were no immediate reports of casualties and only minor damage in that earthquake.
Greece and Kosovo promised to help rescuers in Albania.
“It is a dramatic moment where we should preserve calm, stay alongside each other to cope with this shock,” Prime Minister Edi Rama said, thanking countries that offered support.
Mr Rama said neighbouring countries, the European Union and the US had offered to send assistance.
He said he had spoken to his Italian, Greek and Turkish counterparts and with the EU and US embassies in Tirana.
The quake destroyed at least three apartment buildings while people slept, and rescue crews were working to free people believed trapped.
There was no indication as to how many people might still be buried in the rubble.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.4 quake, which struck just before 4am local time, had an epicentre 19 miles north-west of the capital, Tirana, at a depth of 12 miles.
Local television stations showed footage of a boy being pulled from a collapsed building after an excavator moved a broken slab of concrete and local men pulled mangled reinforcement bars out of the way.