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.

Bodies wrapped in blankets and plastic bags piled up in morgues today as the death toll mounted following Algeria’s devastating earthquake.