BOUMERDES, Algeria — Diggers and bulldozers began demolishing buildings damaged beyond repair by last week's devastating earthquake as the government pledged Monday to investigate why so many new apartment blocks collapsed so easily.
As of Monday, the number of dead was at least 2,217, with another 9,087 people injured, Algerian national radio reported, citing the Interior Ministry. One newspaper reported Monday that an estimated 2,000 people were missing.
As the demolition teams began their work, thousands of people left homeless by Wednesday's quake woke up from a fifth night of sleeping on the streets. Those whose homes were still standing had little idea when, or if, they could ever return.
"It could be another week, a year, we don't know. Nobody has told us anything," Kafia Chamel said after sleeping on a blanket outside his damaged apartment house, which he said was built in 1997.
His wife and children were staying at a nearby school.
Anger has been rising steadily in recent days as villagers and townspeople accused the government of a feeble response to the disaster and alleged that shoddy construction contributed to the collapse of many newer buildings.
"All guilty," ran a front-page headline in the Liberte daily newspaper, accusing state officials, housing developers and construction companies of violating building codes to cut costs.
Housing Minister Mohamed Nadir Hamimidi said in an interview published Monday in the daily Liberte that the government would look into whether weak construction was to blame for some of the destruction.
"The president has decided to open an investigation to determine responsibilities," he was quoted as saying, adding that those responsible for any wrongdoing would be tracked down.
Many have called for the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was harangued by angry crowds shouting "the authorities — killers" when he toured Boumerdes on Saturday, forcing him to cut short his visit.
Between 150 and 200 construction inspectors have fanned out in stricken areas to assess the conditions of standing buildings, said Zahir Chettab of the CTC, the government construction authority.
The process was not going to be quick.
"The first round of inspections will take between a month and a month-and-a-half, but the second round will take much longer," he said, acknowledging that "the quality of the buildings diminished in the 1990s."
Five days after the quake, Algeria was far from establishing a definitive death toll as countless bodies decayed under the wreckage, endangering the health of survivors camped amid ruins.
There have been no official government figures on the number of people still missing, but one newspaper — Le Jeune Independent — put the figure at more than 2,000.
Hopes of finding people still alive in the wreckage faded Monday. Capt. Bernhard Traxl of the Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit said his teams had all but given up hope.
"After 100 hours, it would be a miracle to find anybody alive," Traxl said in Boumerdes.
His teams were busy trying to remove three bodies from the rubble.
School exams have been canceled in Algiers and stricken areas to the east because of the psychological shock of the disaster. The national theater said it was postponing its shows indefinitely.
The spread of disease through decaying bodies and unclean water supplies was a constant concern. No epidemics, however, have broken out, and health officials said they were well-prepared to handle any.