Algerian media says the final death toll could be more than 1,000

Army trucks have been rumbling through the Algerian capital for the first time since the political emergency of the mid-1990s when Islamist violence was at its height in the city.

This time the operation is humanitarian as the army moves in heavy equipment to clear away tons of mud and debris from the streets of Bab el-Oued.

People power

The Algerian media has been complaining about the slow reaction of the state and praising the work carried out by recovery teams sent in by their immediate neighbours, Morocco and Tunisia.

There is also much comment about what the newspapers are calling "people power" - the hundreds of local volunteers who, since last Saturday, have been emulating the efforts of ordinary Americans in New York immediately after the World Trade Center attacks.

It is also been noted that there is no sign in Algiers of the previously well organised Islamic Salvation Front sending in its own volunteers to help out.

This contrasts with the aftermath of the 1989 earthquake just west of Algiers in which Islamist volunteers and charities upstaged the slow moving state apparatus to take over the rescue and rehabilitation process, earning the Salvation Front much political support.

The Interior Ministry says 500 families have already been rehoused elsewhere and aid is coming, but the newspapers are sceptical and show pictures of food aid from abroad stacked in airport hangers and and going nowhere.

The government says it is being unfairly demonised and is doing all it can.