"I tried to flee. But the terrorist at the door caught me and told one of the others `cut her throat'." The 16-year-old girl, reliving the nightmare of Algeria's worst reported night of carnage last week, lay in hospital in the west Algerian town of Oued Rhiou, with axe wounds in the neck.
"They wanted to cut my throat with a knife like my uncle . . . it was the middle of the night when they burst in on us," said the girl, named only as Taos, in yesterday's Liberte newspaper.
"One of them asked my father where the money was. When he replied there was none, they beat him up, before stabbing him also before all the members of our family," she told Liberte, which said a total of 412 people died in the slaughter. L'Authentique newspaper said she had been raped and left for dead after seeing her mother and brothers killed.
Reports yesterday that 27 more people have been killed since last Wednesday's massacre confirmed that the current Islamic holy month of Ramadan has brought with it intensified violence, newspapers in Algiers said.
Algeria's Interior Minister, Mr Mustapha Benmansour, denied yesterday in Tunis that 412 had died, repeating the official toll of 78 dead and 73 wounded.
In the midweek massacre, Liberte said 176 people died at Kherarba, 113 at Ouled Sahnine and 123 at El Abadel and Ouled Tayeb, all in Relizane province 240km west of Algiers. Le Matin said residents of Oued Rhiou spoke of 280 or 320 dead in the attacks on the villages.
Newspapers in Algeria are subject to harsh censorship and diplomats say few now take the risk of publishing a report which could lead to their being banned or journalists jailed.
One commentator yesterday said the discrepancy in figures and the fact no action had been taken against Liberte suggested continued divisions within Algeria's leadership on how to handle news of massacres which in the past have provoked calls for international inquiries.
News of the deaths brought a call from the German Foreign Minister, Mr Klaus Kinkel, for an EU team to visit Algeria to offer help. Algeria has shown itself extremely sensitive to what it often terms "foreign interference", and previous efforts to involve the EU or the UN have failed.
Iran, whom Algeria has accused of supporting the Islamist rebels, also spoke of a need for foreign involvement. "The Islamic world should not remain indifferent towards such shocking acts, especially during the holy month of Ramadan," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Survivors' accounts showed the midweek killings lasted at least seven hours, from early Tuesday evening to around 1 a.m. on Wednesday.
The evening Soir d'Algerie yesterday quoted eyewitnesses as saying the number of attackers was between 300 and 400. "The massacres would have spared no one had it not been for the riposte of several armed citizens."
It said 50 attackers returned later to recover the bodies of some comrades killed by the residents. The foreign-based leadership of the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) political group denounced the "crime against humanity" in a statement in Bonn while the Arab League denounced the killings during Ramadan as "savage and atrocious."
An Irish Times reporter adds: The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, will seek to discuss the killings with his Algerian counterpart, Mr Ahmed Attaf, by telephone today. Mr Andrews, who visited Algeria last month on a fact-finding mission, said he was greatly concerned at the killings, which he condemned.
"During his visit to Algeria Mr Andrews underlined the need to look after the safety of the civilian population," a spokesman said last night. "This continues to be a priority."