Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 June 2012
On October 10, 1980, the town of El-Asnam (130,000 inhabitants) and villages within a 50 km radius (229,000 inhabitants) were 80% destroyed by an earthquake of intensity 7.5 on the Richter scale (Figure l). The first unofficial estimates reported 50,000 dead and 100,000 injured. These numbers were probably based on data from the Agadir earthquake of February 29, 1960, when 12,000 out of the 30,000 inhabitants were killed. The official figures now list for the El-Asnam earthquake 2,600 dead and 8,250 injured. That was nevertheless a sufficiently heavy toll to fully justify the volume of relief that came from practically all over the world. The relief of Baden-Wurttenberg was organized by the German Air Rescue Guard of Stuttgart, in collaboration with the German Red Cross in Karlsruhe, as well as with physicians from Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and Tubingen. In a very short time the necessary aircraft (Merlin IV/Metro and BAC 1–11) for the transport of material and personnel from the German Headquarters were ready for takeoff.