Rescuers yesterday raced against the clock to save people buried under rubble as hundreds spent a terrified night in tents after a powerful earthquake claimed 27 lives in Turkey and Greece.
The magnitude 7 earthquake killed 25 people and injured 804 on Turkey’s west coast after it struck on Friday afternoon, with its epicenter off the coastal town of Seferihisar in Izmir province.
It also killed two teenagers on their way home from school in Greece, and caused a mini-tsunami on the Aegean island of Samos and a sea surge that turned streets into rushing rivers in one Turkish coastal town.
Photo: AFP
In Bayrakli, Turkish families and friends looked on in agony, exhaustion and hope as workers painstakingly went through the rubble of two buildings that were completely flattened by the quake.
Just five minutes across town, worried crowds watched as a black bag was taken away from another collapsed building in the early hours yesterday.
“Let me see who it is,” one man shouted.
Photo: Reuters
In small green spaces close to the damaged buildings, the municipality set up large white tents for the survivors, while the Turkish Ministry of Health’s medical rescue teams offered smaller tents for frightened families.
Throughout the night, hot soup and water were available for those waiting outside as the temperature fell.
Azize Akkoyun watched as the rescuers worked.
“Those curtains, they belonged to my daughter’s in-laws,” Akkoyun said, as she waited for news.
“We will wait all night. God willing they will come out alive,” she said, adding that they were unable to reach them by telephone.
Residents said that Bayrakli, with a population of more than 300,000, was a fast-developing district with new buildings popping up on the outskirts of the Aegean city of Izmir.
A few steps away, the smashing of concrete, heavy machinery and dust filled the air except for the moments when everything stopped in the hope of hearing a longed-for call for help from a survivor.
Hope grew that more survivors could be found following reports in state media that a 53-year-old and 62-year-old were rescued about 17 hours after the quake.
The Turkish government’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said that 100 people have been pulled out alive.
The earthquake was felt as far away as Athens and Istanbul.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
LETTER, FLAG FLAP: A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a letter meant for Taiwanese winners, while China’s team took offense at a Taiwanese flag President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday condemned an alleged attempt by two Chinese to snatch a letter of congratulations handed to Taiwan’s taekwondo team after they won silver at the Summer World University Games in Germany on Wednesday. A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a congratulatory letter to athletes Hung Jiun-yi (洪俊義), Jung Jiun-jie (鍾俊傑) and Huang Cho-cheng (黃卓乘) from the Ministry of Education, and then argued with reporters. “Why are you taking our things?” reporters asked the pair. “Does that say ‘Chinese Taipei’?” the two Chinese reportedly asked. Following the incident, Sports Administration Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) wrote on Threads about
RSS