Algiers: At least 707 people are believed to have been killed in the violent earthquake that hit northern Algeria, national television said on May 22.

The television report did not mention the number of injured in last night's tremor, which it said measured 5.8 on the open-ended Richter scale.

The town of Boumerdes, 50 km East of the Mediterranean coastal capital Algiers, had been the hardest hit, with 396 people killed, the television report said.

Algiers had the second highest number of fatalities, with 224 people killed by the quake in the capital.

Agencies