A powerful earthquake on Friday night has killed at least 21 people and injured more than 1,000 in eastern Turkey, as rescue teams searched through the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors yesterday.
The Turkish government’s disaster and emergency management agency (AFAD) said in a series of tweets early yesterday that five people were pulled alive from the rubble in the eastern province of Elazig.
State news agency Anadolu said among those found alive was a pregnant woman who was rescued 12 hours after the quake hit.
Photo: AP / IHH / Humanitarian Relief Foundation
At least 30 people were missing following the magnitude 6.8 quake, which had its epicenter in the small lakeside town of Sivrice in Elazig.
“It was very scary, furniture fell on top of us. We rushed outside,” said 47-year-old Melahat Can, who lives in the provincial capital of Elazig.
Eray Ernek described how he was watching television when the quake took place: “I was on the sofa and then fell on the floor. My sleeping father was woken up.”
“After we found a way out, we broke the door and got out. We saw other houses had collapsed,” Ernek said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said all steps were being taken to aid people affected by the quake, which caused widespread fear.
AFAD said the quake hit Sivrice at about 8.55pm.
Turkish television showed images of people rushing outside in panic, as well as a fire on the roof of a building.
Interior, environment and health ministers, who were in the quake zone, said the casualties were in Elazig Province and in neighboring Malatya Province.
At least 21 people died — 17 in Elazig and four in Malatya — and 1,030 were injured, AFAD said.
Rescue teams were searching for survivors trapped in a five-story collapsed building in a village about 30km from Elazig, journalists said.
The US Geological Survey assessed the magnitude as 6.7, slightly lower than AFAD, adding that it struck near the East Anatolian Fault in an area that has suffered no documented large ruptures since an earthquake in 1875.
“My wholehearted sympathy to President @RTErdogan and the Turkish people following the devastating earthquake that has hit Turkey. Our search and rescue teams stand ready to assist,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote on Twitter.
The Greek prime minister’s office said later that Mitsotakis had spoken by phone to Erdogan, who said “Turkish teams had the situation under control for now.”
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