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Albania earthquake: Rescuers search into the night after deadly tremor
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Firefighters extracted this injured man from the rubble in Thumane
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The
6.4 magnitude tremor struck 34km (21 miles) north-west of the capital, Tirana,
as people slept in their beds during the early hours.
Most
of the deaths occurred in the coastal city of Durres and the town of Thumane,
close to the epicentre.
Tents
have been set up for those left homeless by the disaster.
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People
are being housed in a stadium in Durres
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Prime Minister Edi
Rama promised that rescuers would "continue to search patiently and
thoroughly to the end".
The
government has declared Wednesday a day of mourning.
The
European Commission said it had deployed rescue teams from
Italy, Greece and Romania to help with the search efforts, while teams were also
sent from Kosovo and Montenegro.
Tuesday's
earthquake has been described by the authorities as the strongest to hit
Albania in decades.
How bad was the quake?
It
struck at 03:54 (02:54 GMT) and was followed by powerful aftershocks.
In
Thumane, a five-storey apartment building collapsed.
Dulejman
Kolaveri, a man in his 50s, said he feared his 70-year-old mother and
six-year-old niece were trapped inside because they had lived on the top floor.
"I
don't know if they are dead or alive," he told AFP news agency, his hands
shaking. "I'm afraid of their fate. Only God knows."
In
Durres, a woman called Bukuri Morina and her family of 10 joined thousands of
others to spend the night in tents at the soccer stadium.
"We are afraid to go back to our apartment," she told Reuters news agency.
"There are cracks all over and we are afraid that we will have the same destiny as people in Thumane."
One man who died was
caught in a car accident when the quake tore open parts of a road, AFP adds.
Another
man died after jumping from a window in panic after the tremor struck.
Are earthquakes common in Albania?
The
Balkans is in an area prone to seismic activity.
In
1979, a magnitude 6.9 quake hit Albania leaving 136 dead and more than 1,000
injured.




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