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'It was like an earthquake'
12/12/2007 10:21 - (SA)
Algiers - The power of the blast could be seen in what remained, with the facade of the building destroyed and flesh stuck to a gate outside.
"It was like an earthquake," said Ameur Rekhaila, a lawyer who was on the second floor of the Constitutional Council in Algiers when the building was hit by a powerful car bomb outside.
The blast was the first of two that rocked the Algerian capital on Tuesday, killing at least 62 people, according to hospital sources. The second, believed to have been triggered by a suicide bomber, came some 10 minutes later and targeted the office of the United Nations refugee agency.
His face swollen, blood dripping from his head, one man told how he had been trying to get information on the first blast when the second explosion hit.
Rescuers try to uncover victims
He said: "I was turning on the radio to find out about the attack, when I was sent flying by a huge explosion."
Dozens of rescuers were working feverishly to uncover victims at the UN building, located in a posh and seemingly secure neighbourhood.
By late on Tuesday night, six people had been pulled alive from the ruins of the office block. Algerian rescuers, aided by sniffer dogs, were continuing to comb through the debris into the night looking for more victims.
"Several foreigners are still under the rubble," said a rescue worker.
At least 10 UN staff, all Algerians, were killed in the attack on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees building. Some of the victims were inside the neighbouring UN Development Programme (UNDP) offices.
Destruction from the first blast surrounded the Constitutional Council, a Moorish style building recently inaugurated by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Metal window frames had been ripped away and were scattered about.
Several students killed
The wreckage of two university buses, recognisable by their orange colour, lay on the road several hours after the attack.
One of them took the full brunt of the explosion as it passed the car bomb vehicle. Several students were among those killed.
A residence for judges and the Islamic High Council, as well as private villas, were also heavily damaged. The blast left a crater several metres in diameter and could be heard from kilometres away.
"I saw rescue workers leave the Constitutional Council carrying bags with human remains," said Kamal, 20, owner of a neighbouring grocery store.
The two attacks, which had yet to be claimed by any group, followed several months of relative calm in Algeria, which had experienced a series of attacks in the capital and other cities this year - nearly all of them claimed by al-Qaeda.
Kamal said: "The terrorists have made the date of the 11th a fetish. From now on, I won't leave my house on the 11th of the month."
He was referring to attacks on April 11 on the government headquarters and a police station, as well as one on July 11 against a barracks in Lakhdaria, an Islamist stronghold.
- AFP
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