Boy rescued after 108 hours under Turkey quake rubble

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Rescuers on Friday pulled a 12-year-old boy from the rubble of Turkey's earthquake after he had lain trapped more than 100 hours, as the death toll in the disaster rose to 573.

The end of Ferhat Tokay's 108-hour ordeal gave fresh hope to rescue crews who have been working round the clock in sub-zero temperatures, while concerns deepened about the plight of survivors.

Hopes of finding more people alive in the rubble had been fading fast before the rescue of 18-year-old Imdat Padak late Thursday, followed a few hours later by Ferhat's, both in the worst-hit town of Ercis where scores of buildings collapsed.

Television footage showed a rescue worker shading Ferhat's eyes as he was brought to the surface to protect him from the floodlights used by the emergency teams.

Both of the young survivors were rushed to a field hospital in Ercis and later airlifted by helicopter to nearby hospitals for further treatment, media reports said.

According to the latest update from the government's emergency service, 187 people have been pulled out alive from the debris.

The unit said that a total of 2,680 people had been injured by the 7.2 magnitude quake which ripped through eastern Van province.

A group of engineers from Istanbul University said the earthquake highlighted often shoddy construction. Concrete mixed with too much sand taken from riverbeds contributed to making housing units unstable.

The quake, Turkey's worst in years, also killed a lot of livestock, one of the region's main sources of income.

Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker said the government was distributing livestock to villagers who lost animals rather than compensating them for them to ensure continued production, the NTV news channel reported.

More than 3,088 animal barns were destroyed by the quake, officials have said.

Fresh snow and rain in Van province Friday ensured more misery for survivors camping out in tents fearing more building collapses in aftershocks, with some camps turned into mudbaths.

Complaints have mounted over the speed of the rescue effort in the mainly Kurdish area.

On Friday, soldiers started to accompany aid trucks after locals and Turkish Red Crescent complained that supplies were looted.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has admitted to failings in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake but has since sent a quarter of his cabinet to oversee operations in Van and dropped earlier opposition to help from abroad.

Countries that have flown in aid include Israel and Armenia, with whom Turkey has had strained diplomatic ties.

Saudi Arabia pledged to donate $50 million (35 million euros) in aid to the quake victims, the kingdom's official SPA news agency reported.

Authorities have begun to clear away debris in Van province, but some of the rubble from Ercis has been merely dumped on the shores of Lake Van, the country's largest lake.

"The local governor's office (in Ercis) first said they would tell us where to throw the rubble, but they could not decide on a place and so they told us to leave it somewhere near the lake. (So) here we are," the daily Radikal quoted one truck driver as saying.

Some 250 trucks have been deployed to clear away the rubble, making up to 15 trips a day to the lake, Radikal said.

A State Waterworks Directorate official confirmed to AFP that some debris was discharged near the lake on Thursday, but as of Friday trucks were dumping their loads at a garbage depot 10 kilometres (six miles) outside of Ercis.