7.2 quake in Turkey kills 217, collapses buildings

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Rescue teams on Monday sifted through rubble of flattened multistory buildings to try to reach dozens of people believed trapped beneath after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey. The Interior Minister said the death toll in the powerful quake has increased to 217.
Hundreds of rescue teams worked throughout the night searching for survivors among dozens of pancaked buildings, as aid groups scrambled to set up tents, field hospitals and kitchens to assist thousands left homeless.

Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said about 80 multistory buildings collapsed in the city of Ercis alone when the earthquake struck Sunday. He said some 40 buildings still had people trapped inside, giving rise to fears that the death toll could increase substantially. The minister did not give any estimates.
"Rescue work is ongoing, especially at buildings where (rescuers) have determined survivors," Sahin said.

The hardest-hit area was Ercis, an eastern city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border and on one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones. The bustling city of Van, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of Ercis, also sustained substantial damage. Highways in the area caved in.

Sahin said 117 were killed in Ercis, another 100 died in Van while some 740 people were injured.
U.S. scientists recorded over 100 aftershocks in eastern Turkey within 10 hours of the quake, including one with a magnitude of 6.0."..."

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Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- Battling near-freezing temperatures and darkness, rescue workers and residents in eastern Turkey early Monday scoured the wreckage wrought by the country's most-powerful earthquake in more than a decade, hoping to find survivors.
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Roughly 20 aftershocks rattled eastern Turkey in one of the nation's poorest areas. The largest had a magnitude of 6.0.

One hundred people were killed in Van, while 117 were killed in Ercis, said Sahin, the Anatolian news agency reported. It also said that schools will be closed for a week in Van.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters the death toll is likely to climb, as rescue teams work through the night to save people still trapped in the rubble.
The prime minister said 55 buildings collapsed in Ercis on the north shore of Lake Van, while the Turkish Red Crescent had said earlier that some 25 apartment buildings and a student dormitory collapsed in the town."...

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mbig said:

Looks bad but geographically localized. Lets hope the death toll doesn't rise significantly higher and as many as possible are pulled out.
Large rescue effort is under way. Turks in the area know this drill.

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ANKARA: Rescuers are desperately searching through the rubble left by a powerful earthquake, with time running out for survivors trapped beneath collapsed houses and apartment buildings.

The official death toll from Sunday's quake - the most powerful in Turkey for more than a decade - rose beyond 220 last night, with 1090 people injured. Officials fear the final number of deaths could reach 1000.

The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.2 and rattled the region with aftershocks of as much as 6.0, flattened apartment buildings and may have damaged as many as 4000 homes, government officials said.
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A rescue worker in Turkey carries an infant to an ambulance
after his team found her alive in a collapsed building. Reuters

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