Death Toll Hits 31 In Algeria Blasts

ALGIERS, Algeria — Rescuers in a shaken city yesterday extracted the living and the dead from the crumpled remains of U.N. offices in Algiers that were bombed by a Qaeda affiliate. Victims included U.N. staff from around the world, police officers and law students. The Interior Ministry said 31 people were killed in Tuesday's twin truck bombings, as the official death toll slowly mounted. Initial reports elsewhere had much higher figures, though the government insisted it had no reason to conceal the full tally.

Rescue work was focusing on five or six people who were in the basement of the U.N. building at the time of the attack and who could still be alive, the chief of the emergency team, Djamal Khoudi, said. Earlier in the day, seven survivors were pulled from beneath chunks of concrete, Mr. Khoudi said. One 40-year-old woman was transferred to a hospital where both her legs were amputated, he said.