Rescuers hold out hope for survivors of Albanian quake

Rescue teams in Albania clinged to hope on Thursday of finding missing people in "survival pockets" amid the mountains of rubble wrought by an earthquake that has claimed more than 40 lives.

The 6.4 magnitude quake, the deadliest in decades, tore down buildings near the Adriatic coast while people were sleeping just before 4:00 am (0300 GMT) on Tuesday.

Teams from around Europe have arrived to help shovel away slabs of collapsed apartments and search beneath the wreckage with dogs and specialised cameras. On Thursday afternoon a new victim was pulled from the ruins of a hotel in the hard-hit port city of Durres, the defence ministry said. A distraught relative watching the operation fainted as the man's body was carried away by emergency workers in a yellow bag.

Yet rescuers kept hopes alive for survival stories. "There may be hope for up to eight or ten days" for victims to live after an earthquake, Captain Joel Leroy, a French rescuer, told AFP.

His team of around 50 was trying to track down two people believed to be trapped inside a seven-storey building in Durres whose first two floors had collapsed into the ground. Victims may still be alive in "survival pockets" of air that allow them to breathe under the rubble, he said. "That's why we are working so hard, we believe in it."

Outside the building a young man with bleary eyes begged to see the body of his mother who was found dead inside. At the moment, rescuers said it was too dangerous to extract her body.

Search efforts have ceased in the other badly damaged town of Thumane, where the defence ministry said no more were missing after more than 20 bodies were pulled out over the last three days.