With more than 650 people already treated at hospitals, according to state media, the authorities were bracing the public for more bad news in the days ahead.

Prime Minister Edi Rama said rescuers would “continue to search patiently and thoroughly to the end.”

“We have victims,” he said. “We are working to do everything possible in the affected areas.”

How are rescue efforts going?

Albania, the poorest country in Europe, issued an urgent plea for help from other nations as it deployed soldiers and emergency workers to the hardest-hit areas, and neighboring countries were sending in teams.

But in some places, at least at first, citizens were on their own, and there were desperate scenes of people pulling away rubble by hand as they searched for friends and loved ones.