Quake hits Turkey: 1,000 dead?
As many as 1,000 people were feared killed on Sunday when a powerful earthquake struck Turkey, collapsing dozens of buildings and pulling down phone and power lines in the country’s southeast, officials and witnesses said.
Emergency workers battled to rescue people trapped in buildings in the city of Van and surrounding districts, near Turkey’s border with Iran.
“We heard cries and groaning from underneath the debris, we are waiting for the rescue teams to arrive,” said Halil Celik, a young man, as he stood beside the ruins of a building that collapsed before his eyes.
Turkey’s Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute said the magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck at 10.41 am GMT and was 5 km deep. Around 10 buildings collapsed in Van city and about 25-30 buildings fell in the nearby district of Ercis, deputy prime minister Besir Atalay told reporters.
“We estimate around 1,000 buildings are damaged and our estimate is for hundreds of lives lost. It could be 500 or 1,000,” Kandilli Observatory general manager Mustafa Erdik told a press conference.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was travelling to Van and the Turkish Cabinet was expected to discuss the quake at a meeting on Monday.
More than 20 aftershocks shook the area, further unsettling residents who ran out on the streets when the initial strong quake struck. Television pictures showed rooms shaking and furniture falling to the ground as people ran from one building. — Reuters
Post new comment