Rouiba, Algeria ? Rescuers clawed by hand through rubble as stunned and weeping survivors wandered through collapsed buildings Thursday, after Algeria’s worst earthquake in two decades killed nearly 1,100 people, injured thousands and left thousands more homeless.

Officials feared the death toll would increase with the search for bodies and survivors, helped by emergency teams from Europe and Asia that rushed to this North African country of 30 million after Wednesday night’s disaster.

Entire families were killed in the 6.8-magnitude quake, which was strongest about 60 miles east of the capital Algiers. Injured people overflowed hospitals. Rescuers calling to any survivors under the wreckage occasionally heard voices answer back.

“The building shook like a ship. I sheltered with my daughters in a door-frame. That’s why we’re still alive,” said Fatma Ferhani, 70, of Rouiba, a town 13 miles east of Algiers and near the epicenter.

Entire blocks lay in ruins. Mechanical diggers lifted away rubble as soldiers and civilians used their hands to scoop up small chunks of debris or probe through dirt for victims.

Rescuers pulled a young woman alive from the ruins, according to France-Info radio.

Women cried out the names of their dead or injured children, wails that mingled with the screams of ambulance sirens. Bodies piled at the town morgue were wrapped in blankets or plastic bags.

A man sits near a destroyed building in Reghaia in the Boumerdes region, about 30 kilometers east of Algiers. A strong earthquake hit Algeria Wednesday night, killing at least 1,000 people and injuring more than 6,000.

When the quake hit, “People yelled, ‘God is Great!”‘ said resident Hakim Derradji. “It was horrible, it was like we had been bombed.”

Late Thursday, the official APS news agency said at least 1,092 were dead and 6,782 were injured. State-run radio gave a higher toll of 1,225. Thousands more were left homeless.

The earthquake was the most devastating to hit Algeria since a magnitude-7.1 quake struck west of the capital on Oct. 10, 1980, killing more than 4,500 people.

“Unfortunately we have not finished establishing these increasingly tragic figures,” Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said. “What is worrying is that there are still many under the rubble.”

The quake struck about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday.