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Turkish earthquake death toll tops 200
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The Associated Press
The death toll in eastern Turkey's earthquake has climbed to more than 200, as rescue teams dig through dozens of buildings that collapsed in Sunday's powerful quake.
Turkey's interior minister, Idris Naim Sahin, said the death toll has risen to at least 217.
Another 740 people have been injured.
Sahin said 80 multi-storey buildings had collapsed in the city of Ercis with people trapped inside 40 of them.
Ercis, an eastern city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border, is in one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones. The bustling, larger city of Van, about 90 kilometers south of Ercis, also sustained substantial damage, and highways in the area caved in.
Hundreds of rescue teams dug through the night in search of survivors among dozens of pancaked buildings. Residents also searched for their missing as aid groups scrambled to set up tents, field hospitals and kitchens to assist thousands left homeless.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "close to all" mud-brick homes in surrounding villages had collapsed.
State-run TRT television reported inmates escaped from a prison in the region soon after the quake hit, though a prison official later said that some of the inmates returned.
More than 100 aftershocks
More than 100 aftershocks were reported late Sunday, including a 6.0 magnitude temblor that struck six kilometres southeast of Van.
A student dormitory was among the buildings that collapsed, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said.
The earthquake struck eastern Van province, close to the Iranian border, at 1:41 p.m. local time Sunday, Turkey's National Earthquake Monitoring Centre said.
The quake was also felt in Iran and Armenia.
The centre reported the quake's magnitude as 6.6, while the United States Geological Survey said it measured 7.2, making it the most powerful quake to hit Turkey's eastern region in at least a decade.
Video from Ercis showed panic-stricken residents running through the streets in clouds of dust.
Next to a flattened eight-storey building, which had shops on the ground floor, residents sobbed, hoping their missing relatives would be rescued.
"My wife and child are inside! My four-month-old baby is inside!" CNN-Turk television showed one young man crying.
Many residents spent the night outdoors and lit campfires, while the Red Crescent began setting up tents in a stadium. Others sought shelter with relatives in nearby villages.
Around 1,275 rescue teams from 38 provinces were being sent to the region, officials said, and troops were also assisting search-and-rescue efforts.
Late Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the Turkish government turned down Israel's offer of aid. Once close allies, relations between Israel and Turkey were damaged by a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in which nine Turks were killed.
Barak said the offer of aid remains open.
Turkish officials said they've declined similar offers from a dozen other countries as well.
Quake was relatively shallow
The quake had a depth of 20 kilometres, according to the U.S. geological survey, which is relatively shallow and could potentially cause more damage.
Telephone and other services were knocked out, and search and rescue teams from other parts of Turkey were being forced to land at an airport a 90-minute drive away on damaged roads.
"There are so many dead," Zulfikar Arapoglu, the mayor of Ercis, told NTV television. "Several buildings have collapsed, there is too much destruction. We need urgent aid, we need medics."
Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by fault lines. In 1999, about 18,000 people were killed by two powerful earthquakes that struck northwestern Turkey. Authorities blamed shoddy construction for many of the deaths.
Many buildings in Van province, with a population of about 350,000, are also old and poorly built, unlike those in Istanbul and other more affluent areas, where the government has insisted on better engineering and buildings able to withstand quakes.
According to the Ercis municipal website, town meetings earlier this year focused on earthquake safety in the town, located in one of Turkey's most quake-prone zones. Officials promised to crack down on shoddy, unlicensed construction.
"We may only need earthquake-safe buildings for only 30 to 40 seconds every 30 to 40 years, but we need those buildings right now," Arapoglu is quoted as saying. "You can't guess when there will be an earthquake."
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