Quake survivors pulled out alive in Turkey
Baku, October 24 (AZERTAC). A survivor of the 7.2-magnitude quake that levelled buildings and killed some 270 people in eastern Turkey was pulled from the rubble with three other people today after he managed to call for help from his mobile phone.
Dozens of people were trapped in mounds of concrete and twisted steel after over a hundred buildings pancaked or partially collapsed Sunday in the mountainous area, but authorities offered hope that the death toll may not rise as high as initially feared.Officials said hundreds of mud-brick homes in villages and concrete buildings in two cities tumbled down in the earthquake that struck yesterday near the border with Iran.
Worst-hit was Ercis - an eastern city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border and one of Turkey`s most earthquake-prone zones - where about 80 multi-story buildings collapsed.
Yalcin Akay was dug out from a collapsed six-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 Ercis some 20 hours after the quake struck, officials said.
Rescuers searched for the missing throughout the night under generator-powered floodlights as families members waited by the mounds of debris, 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.
"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."
Over 100 aftershocks rocked the area this morning, with three of them reaching 4.7 magnitude.
The bustling, larger city of Van, about 9okm south of Ercis, also sustained substantial damage but Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said search efforts there were winding down.
Sahin 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.
The minister told Associated Press Television that around 270 were killed and more than a thousand others were injured.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who inspected the area late on Sunday, said "close to all" mud-brick homes in surrounding villages had collapsed in the temblor that also rattled parts of Iran and Armenia.
In Ercis, a team specialising in mine disaster rescue, worked through the rubble of a student dormitory.
"Four or five (apartments) have been levelled," 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.
Bilici, a mother of five children 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.
A woman who lost her parents sat on the ground near another crumpled building, sobbing as relatives tried to comfort her.
The terrifying moments of the powerful temblor still haunted many.
"I was in the street and saw the buildings sway," Hasan Ceylan, 48, surveying the wreckage of his three businesses, including a grocery store and a veterinary clinic.
Abubekir Acar, 42, was sipping tea with his friends across from a coffee house that was levelled.
"We did not understand what was going on, the buildings around us, the coffee house all went down so quickly," he said. "For a while, we could not see anything - everywhere was covered in dust. Then, we heard screams and pulled out anyone we could reach."The government said it would offer favourable loans to help rebuild small businesses.
US scientists recorded more than 100 aftershocks, including one with a magnitude of 6.0 and authorities advised people to stay away from damaged homes, warning they could collapse in the aftershocks.
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