ELAZIG (Turkey) • Rescue teams working through the night pulled out 45 people from collapsed buildings, Turkey's disaster authority said yesterday, as the death toll from a powerful earthquake in the country's east rose to 35.
Rescuers operating in sub-zero temperatures used drills, mechanical diggers and their bare hands to continue the search for survivors at three sites in Elazig province, where the magnitude-6.8 quake struck on Friday evening.
It killed 31 people there and four in the neighbouring province of Malatya, and was followed by more than 700 aftershocks, Disaster and Emergency Authority AFAD said yesterday. More than 1,600 sustained injuries.
Broadcast footage showed a 35-year-old woman and her infant daughter emerging from rubble in the Mustafa Pasa district of Elazig, some 550km east of the capital Ankara.
Rescuers who heard their screams took several hours to reach them in temperatures as low as minus 4 deg C, state media said. The woman's husband was among those who died.
AFAD said search and rescue operations were still under way at three different sites in Elazig.
Other provinces sent thousands of emergency workers to support rescue efforts, which were also supplemented by hundreds of volunteers, officials said.
Tents, beds and blankets were provided to shelter those displaced by the quake. AFAD urged residents not to return to damaged buildings because of the potential risk of collapse. It said officials had identified 645 heavily damaged and 76 collapsed buildings in the two provinces.
Several residents in Elazig preferred to spend another night outside, despite freezing temperatures.
"Our building is old and there are small cracks. God knows if it will survive in the event of another earthquake. We'll stay here all night," said Ms Esra Kasapoglu.
"Earlier, my son ran out of the house shouting when a jacket fell off the coat rack. When I am at home, I watch the chandelier every minute to see that it does not swing," she added.
Further away, leaning against a wall opposite the building where they live, Mr Abdi Guney and his family waited. "Every time it shakes, you get scared. We're forced to rush outside. Earlier, I was doing my ablutions before prayer and suddenly the building started shaking," he said.
"We were forced to go outside. Like last night, we were already here," he added, while his neighbours brought him and his family something to eat.
According to Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, over 15,000 people are being accommodated in gymnasiums and in schools, while more than 5,000 tents have been set up in the city to house residents.
But "the gyms are full and there are no more tents", Mr Guney lamented. "So we have to wait here."
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said steel-framed houses would be rapidly built in the region to provide housing for displaced residents.
Speaking on Saturday during a visit to Elazig and Malatya, he called the quake a test for Turkey.
Across Elazig city, home to around 350,000 people, owners of restaurants, hotels and even wedding salons opened their doors to accommodate anyone who wanted to spend the night there.
But many preferred to leave Elazig. One resident, who wanted to be known only as Mr Fatih, put his daughter in the backseat of his car while his wife hurriedly threw bags in the boot. Asked where he was going, he said "to the village", pointing to somewhere in the distance. "My parents live there, it will be better there."
The country has a history of powerful earthquakes. More than 17,000 people were killed in 1999 when a magnitude-7.6 quake struck Izmit, a city south-east of Istanbul.
In 2011, a quake in the eastern city of Van killed more than 500.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
