At least 239 killed in Turkey quake
Survivor of the 7.2-magnitude quake in eastern Turkey pulled from rubble with three other people Monday after he managed to call for help on his cell phone
A survivor of the 7.2-magnitude quake that has killed at least 239 people in eastern Turkey was pulled from the rubble with three other people on Monday after he managed to call for help on his cell phone.
Dozens of people were trapped in hills of debris, but authorities offered hope that the death toll may not rise as high as initially feared.
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Rescuers searched throughout the night among pancaked buildings as families members waited outside, some in tears. Cranes and other heavy equipment lifted slabs of concrete and residents searched for the missing with shovels. Aid groups scrambled to set up tents, field hospitals and kitchens to assist thousands left homeless or who were afraid to re-enter their homes.
Survivor Yalcin Akay was dug from a collapsed 6-story building with a leg injury after he called a police emergency line on his phone and described his location, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. Three other people, including two children, were also rescued from the same building in the city of Ercis some 20 hours after the quake struck, officials said.
Officials said hundreds of mud-brick homes in villages and concrete buildings in two cities tumbled down in the earthquake that struck near the border with Iran, on Sunday. Worst-hit was the city of Ercis, an eastern city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border and one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones, where about 80 multistory buildings collapsed.
Sleeping outside after quake (Photo: EPA)
The bustling, larger city of Van, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of Ecris, also sustained substantial damage, but Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said search efforts there were winding down.
Sahin said he expected the death toll in Ercis to rise, but not as substantially as initially feared.
"As the rescue work progresses, there is a possibility of the Ercis death toll increasing but the figures are not likely to be scary numbers," he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said 239 people were killed in the quake and more than a thousand others were injured.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who inspected the area late Sunday, said "close to all" mud-brick homes in surrounding villages had collapsed in the temblor that also rattle parts of Iran and Armenia.
Heavy damage (Photo: MCT)
In Ercis, a team specializing in mine disaster rescue, worked through the rubble of a building that housed students.
"Four or five (apartments) have been leveled," team member Mustafa Bilgin said. "University students are said to be living here. We don't know how many of them are still inside, we've reached their computers, clothing but we did not see anyone inside. They might be trapped in another apartment as they tried to escape."
Dozens of people huddled around the building and silently watched the rescue work.
Women carried buckets to collect food from a soup kitchen as frequent aftershocks jolted the town.
"We stayed outdoors all night, I could not sleep at all, my children, especially the little one, was terrified," said Serpil Bilici of her six-year-old daughter, Rabia. "I grabbed her and rushed out when the quake hit, we were all screaming."
Evacuating the wounded (Photo: AP)
Bilici, a mother of five children aged between six and 16, said her house had only cracks but her family was too afraid to go back inside. She lost one relative in the quake.
Some inmates escaped from a prison in Van after one of its walls collapsed. TRT television said around 150 inmates had fled, but a prison official said the number was much smaller and many later returned.
Around 1,275 rescue teams from 38 provinces were dispatched to the region, officials said, and troops were also assisting search-and-rescue efforts.
Several countries offered assistance but Erdogan said Turkey was able to cope for the time being. Azerbaijan, Iran and Bulgaria nevertheless sent assistance, he said.
Among those offering help were Israel and Greece. The offer from Israel came despite a rift in relations following a 2010 Israeli navy raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine Turks dead. Greece, which has a deep dispute with Turkey over the divided island of Cyprus, also offered to send in a special earthquake rescue team.
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