Government handling of the quake is under media scrutiny

The press also attacks inadequate building techniques and warns of the political consequences for Algeria's leaders.

"We never learned the lessons from previous calamities and earthquakes," states the largest-circulation daily, El Khabar. "We never learned the lesson so that we would be able to rescue what can be rescued."

When a 10-story building turns into crumpled cardboard box, questions need to be asked El Youm

The paper goes on criticise those officials "whose only ability is to talk in front of the cameras and say 'the state can support its citizens'".

"When those officials leave the scene, those who have been afflicted by this calamity suffer on their own. The state institutions are not even there to organize volunteers".

"We could have done a lot more to reduce the number of victims, or at least intervene with much more efficiency".

El-Khabar adds that many lives would have been spared if up-to-date earthquake-proof construction methods had been employed.

When a 10-story building turns into "a crumpled cardboard box", questions need to be asked, another paper El-Youm says.

The independent French-language daily L'Expression lashes out at local authorities, which it describes as the "gangs of criminals ... who sold farmland which has always been intended for potatoes and cabbages".

"The ones truly responsible are those who issued building permits even when the area to be built upon is located in marshes".

The local elected representatives were the most notable absentees and the interventions of the emergency services came very late Liberte

Those same local authorities were totally unprepared for an emergency on the scale of the disaster, the independent paper Al-Fadjr comments. "Even means for digging and excavating were non-existent".

But nor do the authorities in the affected areas seem to care, Al-Fadjr goes on, adding that "the Boumerdes State governor does not even take the trouble of visiting the site, nor the families hit by the tragedy".

The independent French-language newspaper Liberte says that while citizens were using their bare hands to save their families and neighbours from the rubble, "the local elected representatives were the most notable absentees ... and the interventions of the emergency services came very late".

"It is unacceptable," El Khabar says, "that underprivileged families remain deprived of basic necessities such as water and food and people have to wait for the necessary equipment to rescue those who lie under the debris".

Anarchy is knocking at our door, the culture of despair lies in wait for us El Watan

So "backward" are public services, the paper fumes, that "the country is paralysed at a time when everybody is required to mobilize".

A "responsible state", the independent French-language newspaper Le Matin observes, would mobilize resources to organize rescue operations. Instead, the paper says, President Bouteflika has announced three days of official mourning.

Calling for an enquiry into why so many lives were lost, the papers also warn of the potential political fall-out from the quake.

The independent French-language paper El Watan says lives could have been spared had the government put in place effective legislation and oversight measures. "We have witnessed quite the opposite," the paper says.

"This is the reign of non-interventionism, anyone can do anything or play with human lives with frightening ease," it adds. "Anarchy is knocking at our door, the culture of despair lies in wait for us. It risks undermining the already very fragile foundations of our nation."

The independent La Tribune agrees. "Wednesday's earthquake has indeed affected thousands of families in their flesh. But it has also hit the Algerian political system right in the heart," it states.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.