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Rescuers pulled a 70-year-old man from the wreckage of a building in western Turkey on Sunday, some 34 hours after a strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea was also felt in Greece, killing at least 71 people and leaving more than 900 injured.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday 58 were killed in Izmir and two on the Greek island of Samos.
The earthquake on Friday afternoon, with a magnitude of 6.9 according to the Kandilli Institute in Istanbul, had its epicenter in the Aegean, northeast of Samos. The Turkish disaster agency estimated the magnitude at 6.6 and placed the epicenter at about 16 kilometers deep.
The quake triggered a small tsunami in Izmir’s Seferihisar district, where it drowned an old woman, and on the Greek island. The quake was felt throughout western Turkey, including Istanbul, as well as in the Greek capital, Athens. Then there were hundreds of aftershocks.
In Turkey, 949 were injured.
Ahmet Citim, 70, was rescued and hospitalized shortly after midnight from Saturday to Sunday. “I never lost hope,” the man said, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted.
Search and rescue teams were still working on nine buildings in Izmir at dawn on the third day.
Several faults run through Turkey, making it prone to earthquakes. In 1999, two powerful earthquakes killed about 18,000 people in the northwest of the country. Earthquakes are also frequent in Greece.
The country was already suffering from the economic crisis derived from the coronavirus pandemic. The virus has so far killed more than 10,000 people in Turkey.
Vice President Fuat Oktay said 26 badly damaged buildings would be demolished in Izmir. “It is not the earthquake that kills, but the buildings,” he added.
Pope Francis asked the faithful on Sunday to pray for the people of the Aegean Sea.
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