Algeria's Interior Minister says more than one-thousand people have been killed and nearly seven-thousand injured in the country's worst earthquake in decades.
Rescue workers, soldiers and civilians today (Thursday) were scrambling to pull victims from the rubble of fallen buildings in the densely populated region along the Mediterranean coast.
Members of the Algerian Red Crescent were on the scene to help victims, and France and Germany have sent rescue teams with tracking equipment and search dogs.
Local hospitals were overrun with the flood of victims of Wednesday's quake, and many patients were receiving treatment outside. Algerian officials have called for doctors and paramedics to provide help, and for citizens to donate blood.
President Bush in a statement today (Thursday) said the United States stands ready to help in the rescue efforts, and expressed sadness for the deaths.
Most of the deaths occurred in and around the cities of Roubia and Thenia -- the quake's epicenter, located about 60-kilometers east of Algiers.
In the capital, several buildings collapsed and electricity was knocked out in some neighborhoods. Many panicked residents spent the night outdoors, as aftershocks continued.
The US Geological Survey says the quake registered six-point-seven on the open-ended Richter scale.
The quake also produced two-meter waves in the Mediterranean that damaged dozens of boats anchored at Spain's Balearic Islands. No one was reported injured.