7.2 Magnitude Earthquake in Turkey, 217 Killed, 1,000 wounded
Earthquake in Van
More than 200 people were reported killed and some 1,000 were injured in Turkey, as a 7.2-magnitude earthquake on Sunday hit the north eastern city of Van. Tens of thousands of people spent the night outside in freezing cold, for fear of aftershocks.
The powerful earthquake was followed by aftershocks, some of them of 5.6-magnitude, and even 6.0-magnitude late on Sunday. The quake struck at 13:41 local time, at a depth of 20 km. The death toll is expected to rise. U.S. scientists said that there were 100 aftershocks.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the area by helicopter on Sunday, and said that the villages close to Van were the most affected, as their buildings were made of clay bricks.
About 80 buildings collapsed in the town of Ercis, which is 60 km of Van, and 10 fell in Van itself. According to the town mayor, the people in this town need help and medicine. The airport of Van was damaged and the flights were directed to a nearby airport.
Ambulances, and military troops were reported rushing to the place where the disaster happened. People complained about the lack of heavy machinery to remove the rubble in order to reach to the people in need.
According to the head of Turkish seismology institute hundreds of people could have been killed. Around 1,000 buildings are damaged and hundreds, 500 to 1,000, of lives are lost, Mustafa Erdik of Kandili Observatory told BBC.
Another seismologist said that building regulations have been ignored in Turkey and that the enforcement of the code provisions is not at the standard.
Electricity and power were cut in the region, and authorities in some areas cut gas to avoid the risk of fire.
On Monday rescue teams were searching for the victims of the earthquake after lifting the rubbles from the multistory buildings that collapse during the earthquake. Hundreds of rescue teams were reported to have dug through the night in search of survivors.
1,275 rescue teams have been sent from 38 provinces to offer assistance. The interior minister said that the number of dead people on Monday was of 217.
Several countries contributed to the relief effort, among them Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Britain, USA, and Iran. Israel and Greece, two countries that have disputes with Turkey, also volunteered to send help. Turkish PM thanked all the countries for their support in this moment of predicament for his country.
