A wide-eyed Algerian toddler was lifted tenderly from the ruins of her family’s home, two days after a devastating earthquake killed more than 1,600 people.

The cry of a toddler, pulled alive from under the rubble of a collapsed apartment block after being trapped for 39 hours, was the only joy in Algeria today where the earthquake death toll soared beyond 1,500, with more than 7,000 injured.