Fake metal used in buildings caused damage during earthquake: expert declares

A court in Boumerdes (70 Km from Algiers) yesterday started hearing the ministerial experts who carried an expertise on the damaged buildings during the 2003 major earthquake.

• The judge insisted on the presence of all the witnesses to answer the question “Is the crumble of the buildings linked to human errors or to the amplitude of the quake?”
• In this respect, one of the ministerial committee member who was assigned by the former hosing minister, Nadir Hmimid to supervise the expertise, declared that the amplitude was strong enough to destroy some buildings, but some human errors were to be blamed in the crumble of others.
• But the expert declined to precise the level of responsibility of the operators and architects in this catastrophe.
• Answering to the judge’s question, the expert declared that some metal pillars used in the construction of some buildings, contained a high rate of carbon, according to the expertise, and this chemical product caused the break of these pillars which couldn’t support the impact.
• He added that in normal circumstances, the pillars would have bent rather than broken, which means that the damaged pillars caused the widespread damage;