BELGRADE/DURRES (DPA, NYTIMES) - Rescue workers had pulled 46 survivors from the rubble on Wednesday (Nov 27), a day after an earthquake devastated the Durres and Thumane areas of coastal Albania.

The death toll rose to 27, with 650 people injured, according to the Defence Ministry in Tirana.

Rescuers in Albania dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings in search of survivors, after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the Balkan nation on Tuesday.

Using everything from earth-moving equipment to their bare hands, local residents and emergency crews in cities across the country had pulled dozens alive from under mounds of debris by Tuesday evening, the government said.

The deadly quake was the strongest to hit Albania in decades, in a region known for its devastating temblors, and came just two months after the country was struck by another strong quake that damaged hundred of homes.

Across the country, buildings crumbled, fallen facades left structures ripped open to the elements, and many others had ominous cracks snaking across their walls.

In Durres, a hard-hit coastal city, the seven-storey Vila Palma hotel collapsed, crushing cars parked underneath. Many buildings on the outskirts of the city were also destroyed, raining concrete and bricks onto streets, vehicles and gardens.

"What we are seeing now is a very strong, very powerful sequence of earthquakes," said Ms Jadranka Mihaljevic, head of engineering in the seismology department of the Institute for Hydrometeorology and Seismology in neighbouring Montenegro, where she said the earthquake was felt across the country.

The earthquake struck at 3.54am local time (10.54am Singapore time) near the Adriatic coast, about 31km west of Tirana, home to nearly 900,000 people.

A resident of Tirana, Mr George-Ilias Belidis, was sleeping in his apartment when a powerful, seemingly interminable tremor jolted him awake, and he said he thought his end had come.

"Everything was moving in an unbelievable rhythm, I could hear the walls cracking, dishes and glass breaking," Mr Belidis, a 24-year-old Greek citizen, said by phone a few hours after he experienced the deadly quake "in all its rage".

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Videos and pictures shared on social media showed chaotic scenes of residents rummaging through the rubble or trying to extricate people trapped under collapsed buildings. In one video, a group of people in Durres struggled in darkness to extricate a young boy who was trapped in the wreckage crying out in pain.

In Elbasan, a town about 35 miles from Durres, Mr Olsi Shehi, a 39-year-old cook, said a four-storey house had fallen, trapping people inside.

"I could hear six people screaming to get them out," he said.



A collapsed building is seen after an earthquake in Durres, Albania, on Nov 26, 2019. PHOTO: EPA-EFE



Albania's President Ilir Meta described the situation as dramatic as he visited Thumane, the town closest to the epicentre, where several people died.

"We hope to overcome it with the least loss," he wrote in a post on Twitter that included photographs of him talking with local people and an army officer.

In a statement, Mr Meta vowed that rescuers would "save every human life under the rubble of buildings" and help the injured.

It was unclear how many people were still trapped, but locals worried the death toll could rise considerably.

As many as 1.2 million people may have faced strong and very strong shaking, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Seismologists said that the quake and its aftershocks were felt in neighbouring Montenegro, in some parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in southern Italy. Hours later, a 5.4-magnitude quake struck southern Bosnia and Herzegovina; there were no immediate reports of injuries or fatalities.

On Sept 21, a 5.6-magnitude quake in Albania injured dozens of people and damaged hundreds of homes in the same area hit on Tuesday. Officials and seismologists said that quake was the strongest to strike the country in 30 years.

Ms Mihaljevic said the stability of the buildings in Albania might have been greatly compromised by the previous earthquake and that their fragile state could lead to increased fatalities.

As Albanian authorities requested international help, Montenegro and Serbia sent support and rescue teams, according to Prime Minister Edi Rama, who added that various leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, were preparing to help.

Emergency teams from Kosovo, Romania, Italy and Greece joined the effort, and European Union officials said they had reached out to Albania's government to offer assistance.

Mr Belidis, the 24-year-old Tirana resident, said he did not know where he would live, describing his apartment as uninhabitable. Even in houses and buildings that were still standing, the quake left walls bulging, and their inhabitants, most of whom remained outside even after the earthquake ended, terrified.

"Some were on the street, others, in their cars," said Mr Shehi, the cook. "You look around and you think, 'We're lucky we're alive'."