ISTANBUL • Turkey yesterday ended search-and-rescue efforts in the rubble of buildings that collapsed as a result of last Friday's powerful earthquake in the Aegean Sea.
The death toll crept up to 116 in the western city of Izmir and a Greek island following the earthquake that brought buildings down and set off tidal waves which slammed into coastal areas and islands.
In Izmir, people ran onto streets in panic, witnesses said, after the quake struck with a magnitude of up to 7.0.
The quake, the deadliest to hit Turkey in nearly a decade, injured 1,035 people in Izmir, of which 137 were still being treated, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said.
It said search-and-rescue efforts at 17 damaged or collapsed buildings had been completed and teams were clearing the rubble.
In addition to the 114 people killed in Turkey, two victims of the quake were teenagers on the Greek island of Samos, the authorities said.
On Tuesday, 90 hours after the quake struck, rescuers in Izmir pulled a young survivor, Ayda Gezgin, out of the rubble, after hearing the screams of the girl, who is said to be four years old.
The day before, another young girl, three-year-old Elif Perincek, was rescued from a collapsed building. She is now recovering in hospital.
Her two sisters and a brother were rescued along with their mother last Saturday.
However, one of the children subsequently died.
More than 2,790 tents were set up for temporary shelter and more than 10,222 beds were distributed in the area, AFAD said.
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7.0
Magnitude of the quake which struck last Friday in the Aegean Sea, according to the United States Geological Survey.
90
Number of hours that passed before survivor Ayda Gezgin, said to be four years old, was pulled from the rubble.
2,790
More than this number of tents were set up for temporary shelter in the western city of Izmir.
It added that 22 boats had sunk and 43 others had run aground, of which 40 had been rescued, as a result of the quake.
Turkey is crossed by fault lines and is prone to earthquakes.
More than 500 people were killed in a 2011 quake in the eastern city of Van, while another in January killed 41 people in the eastern province of Elazig.
In 1999, two powerful quakes killed 18,000 people in north-western Turkey.
AFAD said last Friday's earthquake had a magnitude of 6.6, with 1,855 aftershocks.
The United States Geological Survey put the magnitude at 7.0, and the Kandilli Observatory in Istanbul said it was 6.9.
REUTERS
