Aegean quake death toll rises to more than 110 as search continues in Turkey's Izmir

Rescue personnel use mechanical excavators as they search through the rubble in Izmir, Turkey, on Nov 3, 2020. PHOTO: AFP

ISTANBUL (REUTERS) - Search and rescue efforts were concentrated on two buildings in Turkey's western city of Izmir as the death toll from last Friday's earthquake in the Aegean Sea crept up to 115, disaster authorities said early on Wednesday (Nov 4).

Two of victims of the tremor were teenagers on the Greek island of Samos, authorities said.

On Tuesday, 90 hours after the quake struck, rescuers in Izmir pulled a young girl alive out of the rubble, after hearing the screams of Ayda Gezgin, said to be four years old.

On Monday, another young girl was rescued from a collapsed building. Three-year-old Elif Perincek was pulled from the rubble and carried by rescue workers on a stretcher to an ambulance. Elif is now recovering in hospital.

Her two sisters and a brother were rescued along with their mother last Saturday, but one of the children subsequently died.

Search operations are now concentrated on two buildings.

The earthquake was the deadliest quake to hit Turkey in nearly a decade.

The quake injured 1,035 people in Izmir, with 137 still being treated, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said.

More than 4,600 tents and 17,000 beds are being used for temporary shelters in Turkey, the agency said.

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 this year killed 41 people in the eastern province of Elazig.

In 1999, two powerful quakes killed 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey. The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said last Friday's earthquake had a magnitude of 6.6, with 1,670 aftershocks.

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