70-year-old pulled alive as Turkey quake death toll hits 64
A member of rescue services kneels to listen during the ongoing search for survivors in the debris of a collapsed building in Izmir, Turkey, on Oct 31, 2020. (Photo: AP/Emrah Gurel)
IZMIR, Turkey: Rescue workers extricated a 70-year-old man from a collapsed building in western Turkey on Sunday (Nov 1), about 34 hours after a strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea struck Turkey and Greece, killing at least 64 and injuring more than 900 people.
It was the latest series of remarkable rescues after the Friday afternoon earthquake, which was centered in the Aegean northeast of the Greek island of Samos. Search-and-rescue teams were working in nine buildings Sunday in the Turkish city of Izmir as day broke.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay raised the death toll in Izmir, the country's third-largest city, to 62 as rescuers pulled more bodies out of toppled buildings. Two teenagers were killed Friday on Samos and at least 19 others were injured.
There was some debate over the magnitude of the earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey rated it 7.0, while the Istanbul's Kandilli Institute put it at 6.9 and Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said it measured 6.6.
A small tsunami was triggered in the Seferihisar district of Izmir, drowning one elderly woman, and on the Greek island. The tremors were felt across western Turkey, including in Istanbul, as well as the Greek capital, Athens. Hundreds of aftershocks followed.
Turkey’s disaster agency said nearly 900 people were injured in Turkey alone.
Ahmet Citim, 70, was pulled out from the rubble shortly after midnight Sunday and was hospitalised. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that the man said: “I never lost my hope.”
Search-and-rescue teams continued work in nine buildings in Izmir as day broke on the third day.
Turkey has a mix of older buildings and lightly regulated cheap new construction, which can lead to serious damage and deaths when earthquakes hit. The vice president said 26 badly damaged buildings would be demolished.
“It’s not the earthquake that kills but buildings,” Oktay said, repeating a common slogan.
Two destroyed apartment buildings in Izmir where much of the rescues are taking place had received reports of “decay” in 2012 and 2018, according to the municipal agency in charge of such certificates. Turkish media including the Hurriyet newspaper said one of the buildings, which was built in 1993, was at risk of earthquake damage because of its low quality concrete and the lack of reinforcements. However, the building continued to be occupied.
A 73-year-old survivor from one of those buildings said she was on her third floor balcony when the quake struck and believes there were at least 50 people in the building, which also had a cafe on the bottom floor.
“In the first tremor nothing happened. During the second tremor, the seventh floor, sixth and fourth floors fell on top of another like a sandwich,” Suzan Dere said. “The building collapsed in a cloud of dust onto the street with a very loud noise. It all happened within one minute.”
Turkey's justice minister said prosecutors have begun investigating several collapsed buildings and promised legal repercussions if experts identified neglect.
AFAD said more than 6,400 personnel had been activated for rescue work and hundreds of others for food distribution, emergency help and building damage control.
It was unclear how many more people remained under the rubble. Turkish media reported three more people were pulled out Sunday from one collapsed apartment building but their conditions were not known.
Dogs, cats and rabbits have also been rescued from the debris.
Turkey is crossed by fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. In 1999, two powerful quakes killed about 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey. Earthquakes are frequent in Greece as well.
The quake occurred as Turkey was already struggling with an economic downturn and the coronavirus pandemic. So far, more than 10,000 people with the virus have died in Turkey.
