7.2 quake in Turkey kills 45, collapses buildings
By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press
23 Oct 2011
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck
eastern Turkey on Sunday, collapsing dozens of buildings into piles of
twisted steel and chunks of concrete. Desperate survivors dug into the
rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and
injured.
State-run television reported that 45 people were killed and 150
others injured in the eastern town of Ercis, but scientists estimated
that up to 1,000 people could already be dead, due to low housing
standards in the area and the size of the quake.
Ercis, a town of 75,000 in the mountainous province of Van close to
the Iranian border, was the hardest hit. It lies on the Ercis Fault in
one of Turkey’s most earthquake-prone zones. The bustling regional
center of Van, 55 miles (90 kilometers) to the south, also suffered
substantial damage.
Up to 30 buildings collapsed in Ercis, including a dormitory, and 10
buildings collapsed in Van, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said.
Rescuers in Ercis scrambled to find survivors in a flattened
eight-story building that had shops on the ground floor, television
footage showed. Residents sobbed outside the ruins, hoping that
missing relatives would be rescued.
“My wife and child are inside! My 4-month-old baby is inside!”
CNN-Turk television showed one young man crying.
Witnesses said eight people were rescued from the rubble, but frequent
aftershocks were hampering search efforts, CNN-Turk reported.
“There are so many dead. Several buildings have collapsed. There is
too much destruction,” Zulfikar Arapoglu, the mayor of Ercis, told NTV
television. “We need urgent aid. We need medics.”
The quake’s epicenter was in the village of Tabanli, 10 miles (17
kilometers) from Van.
Turkey lies in one of the world’s most active seismic zones and is
crossed by numerous fault lines. Sunday’s earthquake struck in the
country’s most earthquake-prone region, around Lake Van near the
border with Iran.
U.S. scientists recorded eight aftershocks within three hours of the
quake, including two with a magnitude of 5.6.
Atalay said authorities had no information yet on remote villages but
the governor was touring the region by helicopter to assess damage.
Authorities did not provide a casualty figure but the Kandilli
observatory, Turkey’s main seismography center, said the quake was
capable of killing many people.
“We are estimating a death toll between 500 and 1,000,” Mustafa Erdik,
head of the Kandilli observatory, told a televised news conference.
In Van, terrified residents spilled into the streets in panic as
rescue workers and residents using their bare hands and shovels
struggled to find people believed to be trapped under collapsed
buildings, television footage showed. At least 50 people were treated
in the courtyard of the state hospital, the state-run Anatolia news
agency said.
There was no immediate information about a recently restored 10th
century Armenian church, Akdamar Church, which is perched on a rocky
island in the nearby Lake Van.
Serious damage and casualties were also reported in the district of
Celebibag, near Ercis.
“There are many people under the rubble,” Veysel Keser, mayor of
Celebibag, told NTV. “People are in agony, we can hear their screams
for help. We need urgent help.”
“It’s a great disaster,” he said. “Many buildings have collapsed,
student dormitories, hotels and gas stations have collapsed.”
Houses also collapsed in the province of Bitlis, where at least one
person, an 8-year-old girl was killed, authorities said. The quake
also toppled the minarets of two mosques in the nearby province of
Mus, reports said.
NTV said Van’s airport was damaged and planes were being diverted to
neighboring cities.
The earthquake also shook buildings in neighboring Armenia. In the
Armenian capital of Yerevan, located 100 miles (160 kilometers) from
Ercis, people rushed into the streets fearing buildings would
collapse. No damage or injuries were immediately reported. Armenia was
the site of a devastating earthquake in 1988 that killed 25,000
people.
The quake also caused panic among residents in several Iranian towns,
close to the Turkish border, and caused cracks in some buildings in
Chaldoran and cut telephone links, Iranian state TV said on its
website.
An officials said the quake was also felt in Salmas, Maku, Khoi and
several other towns in northeastern Iran but no damage has been
reported.
Turkey sees frequent earthquakes. In 1999, two earthquakes with a
magnitude of more than 7 struck northwestern Turkey, killing about
18,000 people.
More recently, a 6.0-magnitude quake in March 2010 killed 51 people in
eastern Turkey, while in 2003, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake killed 177
people in the southeastern city of Bingol.
Turkey’s worst earthquake in the last century came in 1939 in
Erzincan, causing an estimated 160,000 deaths.
Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city with more than 12 million people, lies
in northwestern Turkey near a major fault line. Authorities say the
city is ill-prepared for a major earthquake and experts have warned
that overcrowding and faulty construction could lead to the deaths of
over 40,000 people in a major quake.